THOUSANDS OF Indian students are studying abroad and with each and every passing year that number is increasing. There is, however, a tremendous increase in the percentage of students moving to the US for higher studies. Living in a foreign country is very challenging, yet these students go to foreign universities mainly for higher studies and several other professional courses. Parents naturally have high expectations from their children when they send them abroad for studies. They expect a bright career and a good bride for their son once he completes his studies.
Same is the case with the parents who want their daughters to marry a non- resident Indian. The year 2008 has seen more Indian students travelling abroad for their university education than at any other time in history. International education fairs bring with them universities from all over the world, united in their intention to recruit the best Indian talent possible to their degree programmes. According to surveys conducted USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand have been the four most popular destinations for students going abroad.
According to stats and figures there has been an ogling increase in the number of students going to study abroad last year. There has been a 131% increase in the students going to study in New Zealand last year. Australia has recorded an 82% increase for Indian students applying and studying over there. It is estimated that nearly 250,000 Indian students are studying in America alone. UK has registered a 24% rise for the students who are applying and studying over there. For the last few years Indians apart from being safe and secure in some parts of the world, have also been in danger of some brutal murders and racial acrimony.
Some instances have been USA •Dr Aparna Jinega, a software engineer who was found brutally murdered recently in her apartment in New Jersey. •Aparna, K Chandrasekhar Reddy was gunned down in December 2007, in Louisiana University. •A Srinivas, a post-graduate medical student was killed in Pennsylvania in March 2008. •In September 2008, Soumya Reddy, a post-graduate student was killed by some unidentified people in Chicago. •Kiran Kumar and two other Phd students were murdered in the same year. Australia A body representing Indian students studying in Australia has expressed fears of a rise in racial attacks against them.
Federation of Indian Students of Australia secretary Gautam Gupta said racism was rampant. The news. com. au website quoted him as saying that he knew of eight students who had been assaulted in Melbourne in the past month. Two returned to India in fear, he added. According to the web site, seventeen Indian students have died in Victoria in the past year from boarding home fires, murders, car crashes and drowning. A savage assault on student taxi driver Jalvinder Singh, a student two weeks ago has led to warnings by the Indian press that racist attacks in Melbourne are on the rise.
A Herald Sun investigation found many of the 135,000 foreign students living in Melbourne faced difficulties. A group of landlords, including one man who owns 70 houses, are cashing in, with some charging weekly rates of 85 dollars a head when up to 14 students live in one house. Eight private “colleges” catering to Indian students have been forced to shut their doors in the past three years. Thousands of Indian students are driving cabs or doing five dollar-an-hour menial jobs to afford their education.
Other than these instances there are many such instance such as •An Indian student was knifed in a provincial Belarusian town on Oct. 08 at Gomel State Medical School •Khairullo Sadykov, 26, an Asian of Afghanistan, was stabbed 35 times on Monday evening outside an apartment building near a metro station. •Jyotirmayee Nagasaibabu, 23, was found dead in her room in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, in UK. She was brutally murdered. Such Instances prove that foreign degrees apart from being highly valued across the globe can be highly risky and dangerous too.
It provides great job opportunities to many individuals but the situations across the globe based on these racial attacks are getting deadly day by day. Frankly students have had no problems with this issue, because statistics say that the percentages of students going abroad have increased every year. Yes, some students have been concerned and are scared about this issue, but they are ready to take the risks because many think that if they get settled over there, there is a high probability of earning great and living a lavish life.
But personally I feel that the standard of education provided in India and abroad apart from a few institutions don’t vary a lot. So my question would be why go abroad and drain such efficient resources of India. The steps that must be taken by the Indian government to curb racial attacks according to me would be: •Train Indian students physically and mentally, according to the ethnicity or cultural orientations of the country they want to land up and study in. Accommodation has been a major problem for students studying abroad and due to this they have landed up in more strife, I guess there should be some government’s interference and taking the help of the foreign governments some residential complexes, or guest houses can be built just for students so as to help them accordingly. •There should be peaceful marches held in the foreign countries organized by Indian citizens so as to protest against racial acrimony.
