COVID-19- Plight of stranded Indian students studying in Chinese Universities---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ministry of External Affairs

New Delhi

Your Excellency,

This petition is on behalf of all the Indian students pursuing their studies in Chinese Medical Universities. Approximately 20,000 Indian students pursuing medicine in various Universities of China are stuck in India since late February due to the pandemic. There is a huge loss in terms of both time and money with each passing day.

Although online classes are being conducted the quality is not up to the mark.The primary reason being a low bandwith for a majority of the students and secondly is the banning of the commonly used Chinese apps for communication purposes.In the medical profession clinics are of utmost importance which cannot be taught online. In addition to this, students who are in their final year of MBBS only have their Internship (1 year duration )remaining, which can only be completed upon return to China and doing the Internship from their University affiliated hospital.

This delay is also creating a lot of tension because upon return to India we have to appear for a Foreign Medical Graduate Exam which is an extremely difficult screening exam with a very low yearly pass rate. Thus, such a loss of time is greatly affecting us.

Gradually over time various countries opened their border to overseas students in an effort to allow the students to continue their studies. However, the same cannot be said for China. It's been a month since chartered flights between India and China started but suprisingly International students were not part of the list of travellers allowed to fly. We the students are the future of the country and the continuation of our education should be of prime importance. The Government on both sides should work to come to an agreement.