Parents of students who returned from Ukraine launch campaign

“If the government does not come up with a solution in a month, we will have to pay the fee amounting to lakhs for the new semester in July that will serve no purpose. A decision has to be taken soon. If the government fail to do this, we will lose our money and the future of our children will be at stake,” said Naina Parmar, mother of Priyanshu, first year student at Bukovinian State Medical University (BSMU) in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.

Parmar, state co-ordinator of Indo-Ukrainian Student Front Gujarat Chapter, told this paper that they had already submitted representations to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Education Minister Jitu Vaghani and Health Minister Rushikesh Patel. “Parents and students are worried over what will happen next,” said another parent Snehal Dave.

Dr Rajesh Bhatt from Vadodara whose son is a fourth year student at BSMU said, “Earlier we thought the war will end soon and that we could send our children back but the situation does not look good. Many universities have been destroyed and those remaining cannot operate.”

“If the government wants, they can accommodate all students… it is not difficult… As per an estimate, there are around 18,000 such students from first to last year whose future is at stake and there are around 605 medical colleges in the country,” said Naina.

The parents added that there are 90,000 seats of which half are private and half government, against which 16 lakh students take the NEET exam. Even for these seats 60 per cent are reserved. “How can a child dream of gettingmedical education in this country,” parents questioned.

As per estimates, there are around 1,100-1,200 medical students who returned to Gujarat from Ukraine, of which around 500 students are from Ahmedabad and a similar number in Surat while around 150 students are from Vadodara.