Three deaths of Kashmiri medical students in Bangladesh instil fear among the students' relatives in Kashmir

Srinagar: September 8, 2022: Kashmiri MBBS student dies in Bangladesh. Young MBBS student Khusboo Manzur died in Bangladesh in an accident.

January 12, 2022: A student from central Kashmir's Budgam district died in Bangladesh. Jammu and Kashmir Students Association said Seema Zehra, a resident of Budgam, was pursuing MBBS second year at Addin Sakina Medical College Jessore, Bangladesh.

April 13, 2019: Kashmiri medical student dies in Bangladesh: A Kashmiri health-related college student, Quran ul Ain, hailing from scholar at Tair-un-Nisa Medical Faculty, Gazipur, died.

January 27, 2022: A Kashmiri student studying at International Medical College in Dhaka attempted suicide after being suspended from college for six months. The student was suspended following a brawl during a football match played between the Kashmiri and the local Bangladeshi students.

The series mentioned above of news items have shaken the parents of hundreds of students, primarily teenage girl students from remote corners of Jammu and Kashmir. Around six to seven thousand young teenagers from Jammu and Kashmir have gone to Bangladesh to pursue their higher medical studies with dreams of becoming doctors.

The families of the medical students are more worried as three deaths in two years and one suicide attempt, when most of the time the classes were off because of the Pandemic, have left relations worried and concerned.

On top of it, they hear stories of discrimination, unfriendly few local teachers and some senior students who bully international students. Families get more scarred as no one is accountable.

Kashmiri students want to complete their studies and not be part of local college politics. "Majority of the young students," according to one of the parents (who also does not want to be identified), "continuously live in fear, mental agony and stress."

Another parent said, "there are no helplines or grievance cells where one can confidentially report the behaviour of the unruly teacher or students".

Parents of medical students are in anguish over the unethical behaviour of some of the administration and local students for creating an unfriendly atmosphere for international students in scattered medical colleges, mainly on the issue of identity and nationality.

The parents also complain that there is hardly any college with an international student representative cell or committee for complaint redressal. Neither is there any ombudsman where students can confidently go and complain about the misbehaviour of a few.

Around 7,000 J&K medical college students are studying in 37 public and 70 private medical colleges. One major issue that the majority of students feel is the language barrier. Students want to have special language classes for at least six months in the beginning to learn the local language, or the teachers should use neutral languages in the classroom when they teach students.

Usually, teachers explain medical issues in the Bangla language, Greek, to most of the Kashmiri students, and after repeated requests, it is not change. It is always difficult and frustrating for first-year students to adjust to this atmosphere.

Students depend on their teachers, who judge them every semester, and all the students want to have good grades and no fiascos in their careers. So hardly any student can think of challenging their teacher for fear of prejudice and ego.

Students are scared that their academic progress will affect if they complain (there have been a few cases where students failed). Parents say that students are so fearful that they don't want to go to the higher authorities like the Principal or Chief administrator of the respective college and complain.

The last two years of covid19 have already affected much of the student's progress, and they had to abandon the college and their hostel to return home and study online. Some of the students even left their studies in between.

Parents complain that many green pastures are shown to the students at admission, but it is not of much help in practice. Parents also complain that there are no proper arrangements despite the hefty caption fees that these medical colleges are charging but students still compromise on logistics and other essentials.

Kashmiri students prefer Bangladesh as being a Muslim country. They look forward to the religious brotherhood, and secondly, the degree of the Bangladesh Medical college, to some extent, is accepted by Indian authorities even though an exam is to be passed in India.

Since the conflict in Russia -Ukraine, most students planning to go to the central Asian Russian countries are now diverting towards Bangladesh.

In addition, several students go through the SAARC countries quota to public colleges.

Jammu and Kashmir-based newspapers are full of Bangladesh medical college admission companies who act like intermediaries for getting admission to Bangladesh educational institutions.

Parents are also reaching out to the ruling political party and bureaucrats in Bangladesh to intervene and inspect these institutions so that students feel relaxed and comfortable in the university-like atmosphere. The parents also appeal to the authorities to have foreign student cells/coordinators appointed by the educational ministry to act as a neutral body and listen to the grievances and needs of the students so that a friendly and happy atmosphere is created. They also suggest that institutions should conduct positive attitude workshops to have collective positive energy in the respective institutions.