We are all aware of the empty nest syndrome, a present day malaise when children flee the nest for greener pastures leaving their old parents behind. For overseas workers, this syndrome manifests itself with a deeper tragedy. For them it is a well-calculated move to split up their family. June and July become the cruelest months for many Indian expat families, as this is the time of the year when they have to send their children back home for higher studies. In many cases, mothers accompany the children, and the happy home turns into a lonely abode for the worker. However, a problem greater than loneliness is the exorbitantly high tuition fees which the worker has to pay because of being a Non-Resident Indian. NRIs have to pay a one-time fee of $55,000 for admission to medical colleges at universities like AMU and BHU. For admission to engineering colleges, parents pay $3,150 per year for a four-year course. I raised this issue in 2006 during my interview with the then Indian Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, who was leading a team of academics on a visit to the Kingdom. The ex-minister admitted that there were disparities in the way NRIs were treated and assured me that the fees would be “curtailed.” “The matter is being sorted out,” he told me. In fact, a decision to this effect was announced in 2004 during Indian Diaspora Day by former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vagpayee, who said NRIs from the Gulf and South East Asian countries would not have to pay a special fee for the admission of their children to professional colleges. Arjun Singh further acknowledged that Gulf NRIs should not be equated with affluent Indians living and working in the United States and Europe. “There is a point to that,” the ex-minister said, adding: “Exercise is on to settle the issue.” “We must understand the circumstances under which the NRIs in the Gulf work,” he added. “We realize the problems of the children of NRIs. We are conscious of it. We want to solve it. Previously it was not even on the radar, now it is very much on the radar. Our efforts will be to see to it that they do not suffer from this (educational) handicap,” he said in a message clearly targeted at Indian nationals living and working in the Gulf. In 2003, former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Vinod Khanna told me in an interview during his visit to Saudi Arabia that the government was considering various options. One of the options, he said, was opening branches of the Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) and IITs in the Kingdom. While IGNOU now has a liaison office in the Kingdom, IITs are yet to open their branches. The government has, however, taken a number of measures to mitigate the educational grievances of NRIs. Plans are afoot to set up three universities with 50 percent seat reservation for the children of NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs). The first of these universities is expected to be operational next year in Bangalore. The government also offers 120 scholarships every year to the children of NRIs for undergraduate courses in engineering, technology, humanities, liberal arts, commerce, management, journalism, hotel management, agriculture and animal husbandry. One-third of the 15 percent supernumerary seats in educational institutions (except medical) are reserved for the children of NRIs in the Gulf and South East Asia, according to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs website. The problem here is not one of reservation but of high tuition fees. In fact, I am opposed to reservation for any class or category of students for the simple reason that it promotes mediocrity. I have seen many academically weak students gaining admission to engineering or medical courses through quotas reserved for NRIs. This is bad. Some castes and tribes in India have seats reserved for them because of their supposedly poor social status, NRIs get reservations for their presumably affluent status. What an irony! Children of Gulf NRIs should not be treated differently in the admission process or tuition fee structure. They should not be categorized under NRI and Non-Domicile areas bylaws. They should be treated like any other Indian-domicile student in the admission process and in the payment of tuition fees. They have to take an admission test and if they qualify, they should be allowed to pay the tuition fees which an Indian-domicile student pays. I am making this suggestion because Indians working in the Gulf region have a different status from their compatriots living in Western countries. Gulf Indians are contractual workers who have no immigration status. They have contractual period residence permits. So technically speaking, Gulf Indians cannot be categorized under the bylaws of NRIs or Non-Domicile status. Hence, children of overseas contractual workers should not pay extra tuition fees.
