The Centre on Monday assured the Lok Sabha that it will look into ways for Indian students evacuated from Ukraine to complete their education after returning home, PTI reported.
Under Operation Ganga, the government has been evacuating Indian students stranded in Ukraine, after the country was invaded by the Russian troops on February 24.
When asked by Congress member Gaurav Gogoi whether the government was considering formulating a policy or holding talks with varsities in Ukraine’s neighbouring countries in connection with Indian students completing their medical education, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan said that the ministry was looking into it, PTI reported.
“When we have brought them [Indian students], you remain assured that government will ponder over making arrangements, whatsoever is required, to enable them to become doctors in future,” the minister said, PTI reported.
He said that the priority was to “get the students out of the shock” endured during the war, PTI reported. “We are all engaged in that,” the minister said.
On Monday, parliamentarians had also demanded that the government consider an education loan waiver for Ukraine returnees. “Students rescued from Ukraine face an uncertain future due to their inability to complete their education and also run the risk of falling into a debt trap as they may find it difficult to repay education loans,” Congress member Kodikunnil Suresh said, PTI reported.
Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan, during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, said that thousands of students from Kerala were still stranded in the war-hit nation’s Sumy city. He urged the government to take steps to bring them back safely.
Criticising the government’s Operation Ganga mission, Congress member Abdul Khaleque said that Indian students had to seek help from countries near Ukraine on their own. “In reality, this cannot be termed an evacuation as is being claimed by the government,” he said.
There are over 20,000 Indian nationals in Ukraine, with around 18,000 of them being students, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine’s website, India Times reported.
A public interest litigation was recently filed in the Supreme Court seeking guidelines for Indian students to continue their education after being displaced from their medical universities in Ukraine, LiveLaw reported.
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