When Shila Azimi left home to pursue higher studies in India, little did she know how drastically things would change back home in Afghanistan. Many Afghan students set out of the country with the belief that the Indian education system gives them great career prospects back home. But in August 2021, as the Taliban came back to power in Afghanistan, their dreams began to fade. Today, as their courses are nearing completion, students from Afghanistan studying in India are in a fix. Many are looking at pursuing further studies in India.
“I came here for better education and had a plan to go back and start working with a media house, but all of sudden, everything changed. As a media student, now this is becoming more dangerous for me. Before I came to India, one of the journalists from where I used to work was kidnapped and released after two months. In this situation, I don’t even have the courage to go back. For now, I have the opportunity to do my higher studies with the support of the ICCR, but after that what will happen, I don’t know,” said Ms. Azimi, a mass communication student who completed her postgraduation recently from Bangalore University. With no option left to go back to her home country, she started her Ph.D course under the ICCR scholarship in Mangaluru.
Some students said coming to India was actually a “life-saver”. An Afghan student, requesting anonymity for the sake of his family’s safety back home, said, “I had a job there, and I was supposed to go back after my postgraduation and rejoin the same organisation. But now, the situation is not the same. We don’t have any hope that if we go back after our degree, we will get a job. Many of my relatives lost their jobs. In this situation, my parents don’t even want me to go back to Afghanistan. Now, instead of thinking about going back, I am searching for institutions for my higher studies that is safer for us.”
