India has been a close friend and a reliable political ally to Afghanistan for decades. Over the last one and half years, a large number of Afghan youngsters have been traveling to developed countries for getting a quality education through various scholarship schemes.
India has been one of those countries which have been providing a special scholarship scheme called ICCR (Indian Council for cultural relations) to Afghan youths, along with that, a considerable number of Afghans are getting opportunities to study in India, sponsored by the government of Afghanistan.
However, these students are gaining advanced knowledge and quality education in India, but It is sorrowful to state that most of those students have been into a number of illegal and unacceptable activities during their studies.
Needless to say that, most of the Afghan students are confronted with various problems, the major ones are considered to be:
- The language barrier
- Lack of familiarity with the environment
- Complications within the students
- Disagreements with ICCR office in terms of admission in unchosen courses and monthly stipends being awarded to Afghan students as per the regulations of ICCR scholarship scheme.
Due to the above-mentioned issues, students from Afghanistan are facing terrible problems and have to suffer a lot. One of the major problems that Afghan students have been suffering from is the language barrier, and due to which, to get passing marks in the subjects is a huge burden for them. As I have come across many Afghan students who have been waiting for months and even for years to get their backlogs cleared.
Apart from that, the other biggest problem for the students is thought to be the life in a different environment where they will have complaints against food, hostel life, and many more. thus, the above stated are the main problems that Afghan students have been facing with since very long.
Although, students from Afghanistan are awarded scholarships and get the opportunity to study in India under same identity, same passport, and one nationality, but unfortunately number of students are into conflicts with each other due to the language and tribal differences, anyhow this problem has been taken into consideration and will be solved, not quickly but definitely, fortunately with the genuine struggles of most of the talented and patriotic afghan students across India has overcome this issue up to a considerable extent.
Moreover, another significant problem of course, for all the ICCR students in several Indian colleges is that they are promised beforehand their departure to India regarding the full and timely payment of monthly stipend and placement of the selected candidates in the courses of their choices. But, you will be surprised to know that the reality is not as such. I have come across many Afghan students who have been enrolled in different courses totally opposite to the courses being chosen by the students during their application process, a few students’ admissions had been confirmed in the field of BCA (Bachelor in Computer Application), but later on their registration had been done in B.COM (Bachelor in Commerce) by the ICCR which is completely a different field and can be tough enough for one to pursue.
Likewise, a similar case recently took place. An ICCR scholar from Afghanistan had been placed in HUP (Himachal Pradesh University) in the field of Environmental governance, but after visiting the university and started the rest of the formalities of his admission, that is registration in the regional office of ICCR and the university itself, later on he got to know that his admission was confirmed in completely a different field called MPA (Master in Public Administration).
Needless, to write about another case with respect to the betrayal of ICCR and the concern college’ administration with students.
The case is such that, in one of a reputed college in Bangalore students had promised by the Indian Embassy in Kabul during their application process, that they had to spend the initial year in hostel , thereafter it was optional for the students whether they wanted to stay off the hostel or inside. Staying off the hostile was actually for the loss of the Chairman of that college, hence the chairman had threatened and warned those students for any action taken against him, his words were as such “I will shave my head if you people got the NOC (No Objection Certificate) for staying outside the hostel ”. These were the warning words from the chairman, and the students from around 6 to 7 different countries accepted the challenge and started protesting in front of the Regional ICCR office in Bangalore, which was continued each day from 9 AM till 12 AM late night. they were missing their classes by continuing the protest for several days, by then, the local media also got aware of the issue and even the central ICCR office located in New Delhi got updated on the issue and they sent a delegate to Bangalore to investigate the issue closely, but this action was taken after many attempts and several visits to New Delhi by the representatives of the students from different countries. For an international student, it is not so easy to afford the traveling expenses from Bangalore to Delhi and back, as it takes almost 3 hours by plane due to which one has to miss his studies and time.
Now, let us be more relevant to the main point, despite going through such tensions many of the Afghan students are indulging into the number of blatant, immoral and illegal activities, that some of them I will be described in this article with the help of narrating the relevant cases that have been actually taken place.
- An Afghan student who was studying in one of the esteemed colleges of the south Indian city Bangalore, known as Garden city college got together with his Iranian friend and did a very shameful deed which is absolutely against humanity. The action is none other than raping an underage Indian girl. by then, according to the news both the culprits were put behind the bars of the central jail.
(According to the video clip shared by a news agency on YouTube).
- Another incident happened in the Agriculture Institute of Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), in which there was a clash between Afghan and local students, being resulted from a WhatsApp message. Due to which 18 Afghan and 15 local students got suspended by the college authorities.
(according to a news agency called INDIA 24*7).
- Likewise, a number of other similar incidents have taken place. recently in one of reputed universities of India known as Sharda University located in Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh). A clash happened between Afghan and Indian students, due to which the involved parties from both the sides witnessed the greater amount of negative outcomes, and few students were even hospitalized as well, as they had been wounded so seriously.
- Similarly, it is really unfortunate to write that, in one of the southern cities of India two Afghan students had a fight, in the result of which one of them hit another with a knife and put him to death. The killer was then deported to Afghanistan for the crime he had committed.
Similarly, a number of likewise incidents have happened in other cities of India as well, such as Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
Let us take a close glance at the other activities of Afghan students that they have been doing across India during their studies. Although, one of the greatest headache that majority of the Afghans have been suffering from is the lack of familiarity with languages (English, Hindi) that the lectures are being given in, mostly in the colleges/Universities where international students are enrolled in, but due to their laziness and the provision of open/free environment which provide luxury, these students are not finding themselves interested to pay more attention to their actual purpose, and this results from them to have back papers/supplementary papers.
Now, let us get closer to the facts that I am quite sure hardly very few are aware of, as I myself have done my graduation from India, hence having witnessed one of the Afghan students, who was among those who had the language barrier issue and because of that, he was not able to get all of his subjects passed, thus he waited for almost a year and still he could not pass his backlogs. though, later on, he then hardly cleared his backlogs, but he still had a single back paper through which he was getting Bonafide certificate from the college in order to get his staying visa extended, and this was actually the reason that he did not want to pass his backlog paper. Nevertheless, he tolerated the tension and traveled to New Delhi, where you can find a number of patients coming from Afghanistan for a cure. Looking at this beneficial opportunity he did not think and wait a lot, and intended to make a deal with doctors, to bring them patients and in return he will get paid some extent of amount, you will get shocked to know that the guy was emotionalizing the obliged patients by telling them that he was working in a specific hospital as a translator and then misusing those poor and obliged afghans who could be defrauded easily, just because they were in dire need of help and guidance in terms of everything.
And the guy earned so much money by doing so.
Now, let me narrate a case which is completely against humanity and for a student it is a big abashment to do such acts, even one will obviously feel embarrassed to go for such acts.
I would now like to make it shorter, hence the case is such that a poor old man with his wife visiting India for cure, when they are landing and get all the formalities done in the concern counters in airport, afterward they are getting out of the airport and looking for a taxi to get to the place called (Lajpath nagar) where a large number of afghans can be found, and they finally find an afghan in fact he is Indian graduate, who is quite familiar and known to the doctors, thus he is trying to convince them and the old man and his wife are getting into agreement with the guy, later on, the guy takes them with himself to a hospital and have them into an elevator, thereafter three of them goes up and then down and spend few moments in the elevator, after that the clever guy is asking the obliged man to give him a certain amount of money so that he(the buy) can, later on, pay it to the doctor for the X-Ray test being completed, the old age couple then got satisfied that the X-Ray had actually been done, as they both were new to the elevator, and this was their first experience getting into an elevator.
I believe that the high officials of India are not aware of such things being done in India, and even the government and ministry of higher education of Afghanistan are also not updated of such activities, of the students who are studying in India through scholarship being funded by Afghan Government. Thousands of dollars are spent on them, but in return, only a short percentage of those students complete their degrees and return to Afghanistan with prestige.
I have witnessed few students who had number of back papers some had even 20 back papers, completed their 3 years in India and due to their backlogs they could not get their necessary documents like provisional degree certificate and original degree, so what they did is found brokers, paid them money for making them illegal and fake documents so that they can get jobs in Afghanistan easily.
You will be shocked, to know another fact that many students from Afghanistan has been doing, and this has not been disclosed yet. Thus, the fact is that there are local people who make fake certificates of several courses such as Human rights, MIS (Management information system) Quick book and other computer programs. the stamps being sealed on those fake certificates are exactly looking alike to the original ones that, one cannot easily compare them with the original documents.
In fact, this is totally illegal to make certificates hidden from the institutes that are really providing after completing a certain period of coaching classes in those institutes. This can surely defame and decrease the value of the original certificates being provided by the institutions that are registered by the concern authorities.
The local authorities must take corrective measures against such actions and ban them and charge them as soon as they can because those students are getting jobs by providing fake certificates which can result in negative conclusions and can snatch the rights of deserved candidates for the particular job.
In order to overcome the above-stated complications, I would like to suggest the high ranking officials of India, the regional and central offices of ICCR (Indian Council for cultural awareness) and the ministry of higher education of Afghanistan to take such issues into consideration and take corrective actions against the involved parties.
The ministry of Afghanistan need not prioritize quantity over quality, they have to offer and provide the scholarships to those who really deserve it. proper and organized English proficiency tests should be taken from the candidates before they are awarded the scholarships. This way the Government of Afghanistan can save a huge amount of money which is wasted on undeserved scholars.
On the other hand, the concern authorities in India must also take a close look at such activities and react seriously, so that the institutions in India can maintain their goodwill and names, otherwise the trustworthiness of their certificates in outside world, would be downed and will not be considered eligible if such things are ignored and continued further.
The above-mentioned cases are of only a particular number of students, thus all the students must not be judged on the basis of those incidents. needless, to write that Afghan students have remarkable achievements too, in terms of top positions in academic background and their active participation in conferences, seminars, and other curricular activities.
By:
Hamayun Khan
