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| Newsmaker: M Thenmozhi | | Paying back the piper |
| Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata Sep 25, 2009, 00:04 IST |
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The president of the IIT faculty association says she is worried about the future of a profession that is losing bright people every year.
 The one thing that separates M Thenmozhi, president, All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF), from other Indian Institutes of Technology faculty is her restlessness and ability to garner the support of some 3,000 of her colleagues and do what has not been done in over 50 years — boycott classes and hold protest marches on campuses against pay scales and hiring restrictions mandated by the ministry of human resources department (MHRD) in notifications in August and mid-September.
An associate professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras with the department of management studies, M Thenmozhi has been making the headlines by highlighting what most people knew: That faculty at institutes that have a global reputation is grossly under-remunerated. IIT faculty salaries, revised after 10 years, are still lower than that of professors under the University Grants Commission (UGC) — the differential ranges from five to 25 per cent depending on years of experience — and this excludes other allowances (such as fees for setting exam papers etc) that the latter get.
Some peers hope her vocal protests and leadership will be a game-changer as far as remuneration is concerned. “Her dynamism and leadership qualities will surely earn us the respect we deserve,” said other colleagues who deal with her on a regular basis.
Thenomozhi is unfazed by the fact that IIT faculty (like the Indian Institutes of Management) are governed by the same rules of conduct as civil servants — which means they are not permitted to criticise the government. She is convinced that the poor salary is not only demotivating for incumbents but is also raising the barrier for attracting and retaining new talent.
In fact, Thenimozhi has taken the issue beyond just salaries and has also raised the issue of a “flexible cadre”.
MHRD directives suggest that IIT faculty now need 10 years of experience before they become eligible for professorships — irrespective of how bright they may be. Four of these 10 years must be spent as associate professors at the IITs, IIMs, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs), National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) or Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
A revised MHRD order of September 16 also says a maximum 40 per cent of the professors in an IIT can be promoted to senior grade depending on their performance. The ministry has also directed that 10 per cent of assistant professors at the entry-level be put on contract.
“Under the flexible cadre system, which we have been following so long, we could appoint and promote faculty depending on their performance, irrespective of their age and experience per se. For instance, many brilliant lecturers and PhDs could become professors by their early thirties,” she says.
One of Thenmozhi’s main concerns is that these institutes have, over the past decade, lost hundreds of faculty to better paying jobs in industry, private engineering and management institutions and foreign universities.
With the hunger strike at India’s IITs almost total today, Thenmozhi is now busy organising an all-party meeting with the MHRD in the first week of October, in the hope of discussing and settling once and for all the disparity in pay scales of UGC. Apart from differences in pay and allowances, she says IIT professors manage a lot of administrative work, for no extra money, a task UGC professors are not required to do.
The 47-year-old professor started her career in 1988 from Annamalai University and joined IIT Madras in 1998, teaching finance and management. A commerce student with MPhil and PhD degrees, Thenmozhi says she is worried about faculty quality.
“As it is, very few of my engineering students take up teaching as a profession. Also, we understand the faculty cannot expect the same salaries that our students get after graduating from IITs. But there should be some consensus,” she explains.
Thenmozhi is seeking not only a 40 per cent increase in faculty salaries but also wants the entry-level stipend of PhDs to be at least Rs 38,000 per month, up from Rs 26,000 per month right now. “Also, PhD lecturers should be allowed to join IITs as permanent professors, and not on a contractual basis for two or three years. Any contract lecturer, at such minimal salaries, will not stay with the institute for long,” she says.
Thenmozhi is also demanding that the ministry lift the cap it has placed on the percentage of professors eligible for a higher academic grade pay (which is basically an increment that is paid when the professor is promoted). Instead, she is demanding a performance-related incentive scheme in recognition of their research work.
An avid reader of books on psychology and philosophy, she says she draws inspiration from her PhD guide, Amarchand, in Madras University. “One of the reasons I stuck to teaching as a profession is the satisfaction it provides. Just to see that I can create gems out of young people who later come back and thank and respect me for my work is a satisfaction that is rarely associated with other professions,” Thenmozhi says.
She has a 27-year-old son who is a pharma professional — and earns more than Thenmozhi did when she was his age. It is a situation she is fighting to change for young people joining her profession in the future.
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