NE students’ numbers swell

“Two Khasi students were abused last year. One of them has gone back to Meghalaya. But the other student has stayed back. Also,many Khasi students have come to Pune this year. The situation is normal now. Pune is like a second home,” says Sashan Khongthohrm,president of the Khasi Student’s Union,Pune.

Helplines

Social organisations in Pune have come forward to provide helplines for NE residents in Pune. Nitin Ghodke,coordinator of My Home India,says: “Most of the students from NE do not understand Marathi. So they face problems while communicating during admission to colleges,while taking rooms on rent and other purposes. There are incidents of local miscreants trying to cheat and abuse NE students. We provide support to the NE students in such issues and arrange their interactions with local residents for creating awareness. On August 11,we arranged a small meeting of NE students and local citizens to understand their problems.” My Home India helpline numbers for N-E students are 8275051726,9011017918.

Sanjay Nahar of the NGO Sarhad says,“We have started fellowships for students from NE. Our organisation has also decided to adopt 100 such students. We will be looking after their education.” Sarhad’s helpline for the NE residents is 9975656666.

Hostel facility is being provided to NE students by Jankalyan Samiti in Pune. “We have two hostels,one in Sadashiv Peth and the other in Chinchwad,where 32 NE students are residing at present. We provide these hostels free of charge with the help of local people,” says Shantanu Sangvikar of Jankalyan Samiti.