Police on Friday prevented students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) from marching to the education ministry to press for their demands, including an increase in scholarship amounts.

The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) had appealed to the students to participate in the march as part of an ongoing hunger strike on campus, which entered the 13th day on Friday.

One of the main demands of the union is increasing the amount under the merit-cum means (MCM) scholarship scheme. The scholarship is provided to meritorious students with parental income of less than ₹2.5 lakh a year. The JNUSU has demanded that the amount be increased to ₹5,000 from ₹2,000 a month.

Before the start of the march, Rector-1 Brajesh Kumar Pandey called the students and heard their demands but did not give any assurance about meeting them. He said the university administration would get back to the students by evening.

Vice-chancellor Santishree D. Pandit later met the students and expressed her inability to accept the demand for increasing the MCM amount.

The Delhi police put up multiple layers of barricades to prevent the students from stepping out of the campus. However, the students marched for half a kilometre outside the campus before being stopped. A clash broke out as the students tried to break the barricades.

The police detained several students, including JNUSU president Dhananjay. The students complained that some of their female batchmates were assaulted by the police. Some of the journalists who had gone to report on the protest complained that the university’s security staff had attacked them.