As the last big group of Indian students left Ukraine Tuesday, anxiety is mounting among those studying in the neighbouring country of Belarus — an ally of Russia in the war — as commercial flight suspensions, card company boycotts and sanctions begin to bite.
The Indian medical students there, numbering around 2,000 as per a parents’ group, say Belarusian universities are not approving long leaves for them and that most commercial airlines have suspended their operations from that country.
Khilan Khetani, a fourth-year MBBS student at Grodno State Medical University in the western Belarusian city of Grodno, flagged rising prices in the country and the depleting cash with him.
“We are no longer able to make payments through forex card or international debit cards. Nor do ATMs have local currency. Prices of daily essentials like vegetables and fruits have doubled. I am running out of cash in hand,” the 21-year-old Rajkot resident said over the phone from Grodno.
Another medical student, Madhu Sudhan Rao Poluru, 23, is due to graduate in June as he completes his six-year MBBS course. He studies at the Vitebsk State Order of People’s Friendship Medical University in Vitebsk, a city just 20 km from the Russian border. “The universities here require 100 percent students’ attendance. If the situation turns worse and if I have to return, my graduation will be delayed,” said Poluru, who is the son of a government electrical engineer from Tirupati.
Some want to return to India apprehending trouble in coming days but are unable to. “Our university is granting us leave till March 27 only while not offering the option of online classes. Most airlines have suspended their operations in Belarus and only one or two are operating flights these days. Flight ticket rates have shot up to more than Rs 1 lakh for a round trip instead of around Rs 45,000. We live just 10 km away from the Poland border but as Belarus is said to be on the Russian side in the ongoing conflict, neighbouring countries are not open to us without a visa,” said Mansi Shah, an Ahmedabad resident who is a fourth year student in Grodno.
Approximately 2,000 Indian students are studying medicine in various universities in Belarus, says a Rajkot-based organisation formed two years ago by parents of children who are studying in Belarus. Around 700 are believed to be from Gujarat while the rest are from south and north India, said the All India Parents Association Belarus Medical Students (AIPABMS). On Saturday, a delegation of AIPABMS made a representation to CR Paatil, the Lok Sabha member who is also the president of Gujarat unit of the BJP, on Saturday, demanding that Operation Ganga be extended to Belarus also.
Rajesh Khetani, secretary of AIPABMS and father of Khilan, met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 1 and made a representation.
Parents of those studying in Gomel near the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus border trijunction are also worried. “The parents of many students in Ukraine can’t afford to charter flights to bring their children back to India. Therefore, the government sending evacuation flights to Belarus is the only hope,” said K Rajashekhar Yakshith, a teacher from Tirupati.
