Research in social sciences takes a beating owing to poor funding: Study
China is ahead of India in terms of funding, number of faculty members: Sukhadeo Thorat
Owing to insufficient funding to social science research (SSR),
“productive, useful and empirical research on multiple policy and social
problems in the country has taken a severe beating”, says a recent research on
funding to SSR in India.
“China is ahead of India in terms of funding, faculty and publications
in international journals and it reflects poor quality of infrastructure in SSR
institutes here,” said Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman, Indian Council of Social
Science Research (ICSSR), who is one of the two authors of Social Science Research in India:
Status, Issues, and Policies,
published by the Oxford University Press, New Delhi (2016).
The
study is co-authored by Samar Verma, senior programme specialist, International
Development Research Centre, New Delhi.
The average number of faculty in research institutes in India was seven
against 35 in China, said Prof. Thorat, speaking to The
Hindu.
While the Union Home Department alone incurred an expenditure of ₹1,050
crore on carrying out Census and data collection (statistics) in 2012–13, the
total expenditure incurred by different Union ministries on SSR was just ₹543
crore during the same year, said the report.
Contrast to science
On the other hand, it found that expenditure on research in natural
sciences was ₹2,929 crore in 2012–13. “This indicates that
the share of expenditure incurred towards social science and humanities is
meagre compared with pure science and technology,” said the study.
The University Grants Commission too released ₹397.82
crore for major and minor research projects in pure sciences during 2008–13,
against just ₹131.38 crore for SSR during the same period,
it said.
With the support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development,
various councils, including ICSSR, Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS),
Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), Project of History of Indian
Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC), and National University of
Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), are promoting SSR.
Among all these councils, ICSSR funding accounts for the highest share
of 65.13 per cent in 2012–13. Except the ICSSR and the IIAS, which have
registered increased growth rate in spending in SSR during 2004–05 to 2012–13,
other councils such as the ICHR, the ICPR and the NUEPA have reported negative
growth in terms of funding on SSR, said K. Gayithri, professor, of ISEC,
Bengaluru, who was associated with the study.
Disparity in sanction of projects
Within the social science disciplines, there has been discrimination in
sanction of projects: while economics, commerce and management have been
sanctioned maximum number of research proposals and received more funds, other
disciplines got meagre funds.
In 2012, the UGC sanctioned 82 proposals in economics (₹4,94,72,800),
77 in commerce (₹3,91,16,100), and 59 proposals in management
(₹3,59,56,700), while history received 51 projects (₹2,27,26,500),
human rights four (₹28,83,400), mass communication six (₹3529000)
and music received six projects (₹22,66,500).
Flow of funds
They said most of the SSR institutions, which are funded by the ICSSR,
were concentrated in the northern zone, in and around Delhi (8), while the
southern zone stands in the second place (7 institutions). There are five
institutes in the western zone, three in eastern zone, and only one institute
in north-eastern zone.
A major share of grants went to the northern zone (₹18.73
crore, 38.6 per cent) in total funding from the ICSSR in 2012–13. The southern
zone got the second largest share with a funding of ₹13.34
crore (27.50 per cent) in the total. The central, eastern and north-eastern
zones got ₹1.99 crore, ₹4.69
crore and ₹2 crore, respectively.
Source | The Hindu | 26 December 2016
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Pralhad
Jadhav
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