#TakeUsBackToChina: a plea from Indian medical students, as coronavirus lockout, fraying ties intervene
- Thousands of Indian medical students who returned home from China during the pandemic are struggling to finish their degrees
- The students are using the hashtag #TakeUsBackToChina on social media to raise awareness of their plight
Suhail, who comes from the southern Indian city of Vellore, in Tamil Nadu state, had been studying medicine at Wuhan University since 2015. Had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic, he was on track to graduate in June 2021, after which he planned to return to India to practise as a doctor.
Because of the difficulty in getting into medical school in India, many students from the country, like Suhail, go abroad to seek their fortunes. China emerged as one of the main destinations for them in the early 2000s, as it offered reasonable tuition costs, an easier admissions process, and a safe environment for women, according to India’s Institute of Chinese Studies.
Out of the nearly 25,000 Indian students studying in China, about 90 per cent are medical students, according to the Indian embassy in China. India is also the fourth-largest source of international students for China.
Although evacuation flights from Wuhan carried 723 Indian students back to their home country during the outbreak, with about 80 per cent of those medical students, there is no data on how many Indian medical students in total returned from China.
Like Suhail, most students who returned to India after the pandemic broke out never thought they would be unable to go back to China.
