Why IIT professors need more salary?

IIT professors took casual leave to protest against the snipped pay hike. It is democratic right for all the workers (employees) to protest peacefully if they are not happy with something, particularly salary. There is no problem in that. As being from engineering college they perhaps felt necessary to provide reason. But the logic behind their strike is little unreasonable.

First, some of them have compared their salaries to the professors at Harvard and MIT. No doubt professors at American universities get Rs 500,000 a month that is whopping amount when seen as such. But it needs to be talked in purchasing power terms. Purchasing power factor is almost 5 for India and America. So the amount professors earned in America is equivalent to Rs 100,000 when this factor is taken into account. As reported in the media and can be calculated from the IITs recruitment websites that a professor of IIT gets almost Rs 50,000. Does this really look so less as made by the professors and the media?

Second, some of the professors have given interviews to the media that they left some lucrative offers at Stanford and other US universities to come to India. Well, it is good that they decided to come, teach and research in India but what else they expect? They have not done any personal favour to anyone or the country at large. Expect a few, most of them come back because they did/could not fit into the US or any other society. They miss their home and parents. They want their kids to grow up in India with Indian "traditional" values.

Third, they get the best possible facilities in India for research in comparison to any other university. Not only they have freedom to do research whatever they want to but also they get all the resources, including the best brain of India to work for them. For a career in academic what else one needs? They get almost free on-campus accommodation with electricity and water supply for 24 hours. Their kids have Kandriya Vidyalaya in campus. They live a life free of many day-to-day hassle that an ordinary citizen of India faces. And after all they get respect from the society and the government for being a teacher of repute in an institute of excellence.

IIT professors are asking for scholastic payment of Rs 15,000 per month. Their argument is that spend six years in doing a Phd on their subject. They lost the opportunity to earn in those years so they need to /should be compensated for the lost opportunity. Is it a joke? Any professor teaching in a smaller university also spends six years for doing Phd and they do not even get scholarship during those years but they do not get any benefits for the lost opportunity. They why the IIT professors should get? They should be equal in terms of direct compensation from the government.

One should not forget that the IITs are government institutes and run on government funding. MIT, Harvard and Stanford are private institutes. They have different objectives. Neither IIT professors should compare themselves with their students who get offer of Rs 9 lacs in their forth year. Many of these professors are from IITs and they had chance to accept these corporate offers but they choose to spend life in academic. This is life they have chosen and imposed on them. If they are not happy they are welcome to join corporates and work for 60 hours a week on subjects that the companies like them to work and lose their freedom to do research. It is a balancing act. One can not get everything in one life.