India’s Mass Exodus of Talents and the 5Cs behind it

India’s Mass Exodus of Talents and the 5Cs behind it

KAKALI DAS

“The life of students is much better overseas”. A reason for our talents to migrate?

Ukraine is on front-foot in the last few days, and Putin is willing to go to any extent for control over Ukraine. All kinds of weapons are employed upon Ukraine. Meanwhile, Indian students have returned safely to India. Government has evacuated more than 20,000 Indian students back to the country.

Keeping up with historical evacuation, Indian citizens once again rescued from another corner of the world. The next challenge for these students is their future. What about their careers now?

Medical graduates have been allowed by National Medical Council to complete internship in India. But a major problem is for those students who have not yet completed MBBS and who left midway. There is a debate over their future. IMA national asked government to accept them in Indian colleges as a one-time exception.

On the contrary, IMA Kerala and Tamil Nadu are against the suggestion as they say it would be unfair for the students who qualified NEET. A different measure should be taken. Then, there are people who taunt or curse these students asking why they went to study outside India! This is done to defend the government also.

But, the question is valid – Why do the students leave India, despite too much Vikash? Why is the rush?

Study Abroad websites list 10-20 reasons why our students prefer studying abroad. Research shows 5 major reasons or 5Cs: Competition, Course, Cost, Convenience and Career.

• Competition– In order to understand this, let’s take for an example the medical education in India. Health Ministry data lists 533 medical colleges, of which 261 colleges are private. There are nearly 90,000 UG seats in these medical colleges. According to National Testing Agency (NTA), 16 lakh students sat for the NEET exam in the year 2021. 8.7 lakh students amongst these cleared the NEET exam. 90 out of 100 students fail to secure seat even after clearing it. Student Naveen Shekarappa who died during shelling in Kharkiv scored 97% in pre-university. Such a student failed to secure a seat.

Government is quite aware of this. There were 51,348 seats when they came to power in 2014. During the tenure, seats increased to 90,000 in 2021. Unfortunately, this is not enough. So, meritorious students are forced to seek their education outside. There is no balance between seats and candidates. To correct this, it should be a topic of discussion in the mainstream which does not happen.

• Cost– It’s great if you get admission in a government college in India. It’s less expensive, average annual fees is 2 lakhs, and the entire course is of 14 lakhs. But if you don’t get into a government college, then private medical college cost an average annual fees of 10-15 lakhs. The entire course is 70 lakhs upwards. This is, in fact, a pricing in the lower end private colleges. Education is more expensive at higher end private colleges, may be in crores. Some parents can afford this private education. Middle class families cannot. This is why they head to countries like Ukraine. Fees there obviously is high compared to our government colleges, but much lesser than private ones here. As well as quality of education is better.

• Courses– So far we have only assumed example of medical education. There are other courses for which students leave. Maximum students leave for engineering studies in fact, and not for medical. A survey found that 18%, 12%, 11% students go to abroad to study engineering, computer science, and management respectively. 24% students leave for courses on advanced technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence. In our institutions, specialised fields are not easily available for grabs. Research scholars also have to leave. UNESCO study shows world expenditure on R&D is 1.7 trillion USD. Country wise allocation can be known by GERD, and that for India is only 0.66% of the GDP, whereas China, USA and Japan are 2%, 2.7% and 3.4% respectively. Imagine the amount of focus and investment on research of GDP in these countries!

This year, in the budget speech, finance minister agreed to focus more on R&D in special fields. But there were no sufficient budgetary provisions. It’s not well outlined. The government, however, has realised that the cutting edge technology courses like AI, data science, machine learning are limited to a few colleges.

• Convenience– When we discuss about studying in abroad, the first to come to mind is Punjab and Canada. Ministry of External Affairs, in the Lok Sabha told that from 2016 to Feb 2021, 9.84 lakh people in Punjab went to abroad. Of these 3.7 lakh were students. You may know that going to Canada is convenient for the Punjabis. There is a mini-Punjab in Canada. Because of few jobs and bad pay in Punjab, students go outside. They can work part-time to pay off expenses. It is not feasible if you try that in India, as in Canada part-time pay may even be better than full-time pay in India.

Besides, life of students is much better overseas. International students are free and students get same rights as Canadians. Canada is one of the safest places in the world and universities there are world class too. Population is less so competition is under control.

• Career– It’s surprising to know that competition is stiff for Medical seats whereas Engineering seats go unclaimed. AICTE data shows increase in engineering seats from 2012-2015. Now in 2021-2022, the number of seats has dropped below previous level. In 2012-13 and 2014-15 there were 26.9 L and 31.8 L seats respectively. And in 2021-22, it has decreased to 23.6 L. Why? Because students no longer want to take admission in engineering. As there are far less high-end jobs, and far more mediocre paying jobs. Engineers, thus, are switching careers. Like in Haryana’s Sonipat, 2 engineers quit jobs to open Biryani stall, claim they are earning more. This is not a one-off case. In UP, police released 62 vacancies for messenger jobs, to deliver packages. Qualification – only 5^th pass, and knows how to cycle. For these 62 vacancies, 50,000 graduates, 28,000 post graduates, 3,700 Ph.D. holders applied. A Kolkata hospital morgue released vacancy for 6 lab assistants, and 8000 candidates applied, of which were 100 engineers and 500 post graduates. Indian students overseas spend $30 billion a year which may hit $80 billion by 2024. With this hefty amount of money, great institutions here can be set up.

Salary, job and career may or may not be available, but everyone has a political job here, it seems. We must realise, no matter the party in power, always ask questions about jobs, education, law and order, healthcare. But do we? Those who think it matters, silently migrate for better opportunities and a better tomorrow.

India is among the top for students and skilled workers migrating abroad. This is a matter of shame that other economies grow by our hard work. Apart from Make in India, a Study in India campaign is needed. Otherwise, this exodus will forever remain.

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