The decision to go on a one-day strike by the faculty members of the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to protest the modified notification of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) — which, among other things, ignores their demand for a pay hike — has evoked a mixed response from the student community, alumni of the premier institutes, and guardians of education.
Professor Yash Pal, chairman of the Yash Pal Committee which recently submitted a report to the ministry on renovation and rejuvenation of higher education, said: “If all the central and state universities also start asking for higher pay, how is it possible to carry everyone? If the work is enough and pay reasonable, it should be acceptable. It’s not good to talk about money all the time. The HRD ministry will surely look into the requirements of the faculty members.”
“Meanwhile, it is more appropriate for the faculty to speak to the ministry rather than take measures like strikes,” he added.
Arbind Sinha, acting director, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), acknowledges that IIMs and the IITs “are centres of excellence and should be accorded special status. They should definitely be considered on a different package than faculty from other universities”. However, he adds that professors “should also be considerate beyond a certain point. The country’s economy is different from what it was two years ago. The faculty members should express their mandate with the government but they should not go on strikes. Strikes are beyond the dignity of a teacher”.
Students and alumni, however, take a more liberal and understanding view of the situation.
Faculty pay has been an issue for a long time and there is no doubt that faculty members should be paid better if we want to promote institutes like the IIMs, reasons Rashmi Bansal, IIM-A alumni and founder of JAM magazine. She insists that “we need to create an atmosohere that could attract the best professors in the world but that would be impossible without the government’s flexibility. In India, the only way to draw attention is to strike and after facing problems for a long time, the faculty has gone on strikes as a last resort. It wasn’t for a long duration either. All they are asking is for the government to give them reasonable pay because when professors are relocated to IIMs and IITs coming up in smaller centres, it would definitely involve some adjustments for them. Also, with increased workloads, the level of research will risk going down”.
Pratyush Ghosh, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, concurs: “Professors who have stuck to IITs have stuck just for the love of teaching, since salaries and benefits are always at the lowest. Even IIM faculty members get better salaries. Visiting faculty are few and far between because IITs cannot afford it. Not all professors are going to endure this for ever. The HRD ministry should have seen it coming.”
