Bengaluru: On Thursday, PhD scholars across the country, led by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science — who staged a protest inside the IISc campus when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited on Feb. 18 - will flood the Ministries of Finance and Human Resource Development with Re 1 cheques!

This is the first step of a series of protests against the central government's indifference towards hiking research fellowships, for these scholars, many of whom have families to support. “We want to let the government know that we are not beggars,” said Anindita Brahma, General Secretary, Student council, IISc. “We are some of the most qualified people in the country, but we earn a pittance. We are only asking for what we deserve.”

The students will take their protests to the streets this week, forming human chains across the city and spamming concerned ministries with written protests. If their demands are not met by the end of the week, they will institute a nationwide shutdown of research, although they hope it will not come to this.

On Thursday, around 10,000 students from across the country will flood the Ministry of Finance and the MHRD with Rs1 cheques. “We want to show them that we have money, we are not beggars,” said Anindita Brahma, General Secretary, Indian Institute of Science. “We want what we deserve, not a penny more.” Students from IISc are at the epicenter of the protests that have rocked the nation for the past week. Research scholars in Delhi have sat in a 24/7 protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding better stipends for research scholars, to implemented from October 2014.

Last week, protests intensified with the MHRD notification which said that the revised stipend (Rs 25,000 for M.Sc graduates and Rs 28,000 and Rs 31,000 for M.E. and M.Tech graduates) will come into effect from February 2015. It also made no mention of any revision of stipend for M.Sc graduates, which means a Senior Research Fellow who is five years into his work will be on par with a Junior Research Fellow fresh out of graduate school. M.E and M.Tech students are now required to furnish two years of research before they are eligible for their fellowships, although nobody seems to know if this work must be done for free.

Students at IISc are taking their agitation to the streets this week, with novel modes of protest planned for each day. Monday saw Rangmanch, the institute’s Dramatics Club perform a street play outside the director’s office on campus. ‘The Great Indian PhD Circus’, directed by Amit Roy, includes a fictional depiction of MHRD Minister Smriti Irani, who controls all the researchers in the country. “She tells them to serve their nation, which they do. When it's time for reimbursement, she pays them a pittance,” said Roy. The researchers then revolt and a hike is announced, but only a few students get the benefits. “There is chaos, which doesn’t end until the minister gives in,” said Roy.

On Tuesday, students will hold a protest march inside the campus. On Wednesday, the real agitation begins. The students will form a 2 km-long human chain from Mekhri Circle to CNR Rao Circle. “We have extended invitations to scholars from NCBS, JNCASR and Nimhans as well,” said Brahma.

If the next notification does not meet their demands, the researchers will take drastic steps, which could even include a nationwide shut down of research. “Our administration has said that it will not support such a step and we don’t want to take it either,” said Brahma. “We don’t want to be pushed to that, though.”