New Delhi: Between the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan and stricter visa rules in India, 27-year-old Habibullah Mohammadi feels his dreams are turning to dust. An MBA student at Chandigarh University has decided to skip his last semester for the time being, but his entire future is at stake.
Mohammadi and his roommate have not been able to pay their fees for the last two terms. There is no money coming in from their families and their Indian visas do not allow them to work. The only life raft he currently has is at the mercy of his Indian classmates.
“My father has not been able to send me any funds for the past few months. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get money just to survive. Thankfully, my classmates are helping me raise funds for now,” Mohammadi told ThePrint over the phone. “I want to be able to support myself. I want to finish my studies and find a job.”
He is taking the situation day by day, but the future is looking grim. Mohammadi, who has been in India since 2018 and completed his BBA from here, knows that it is almost impossible to get a job in the country and hence hopes to find opportunities in the Middle East or Western countries. But right now, he is not even sure whether he will be able to complete his degree or not.
Mohammadi’s plight is not unusual for Afghan students in India. Many are hanging in the balance here. Many of their families are without money, they are not allowed to work legally, and scholarships have stopped. His universities are no longer so welcoming, and even his friends cannot support him forever.
According to the 2021 figures of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 15,000 Afghans in India are registered with the UN agency as refugees and asylum seekers. Besides, about 13,000 According to the Afghanistan Embassy, Afghan students are currently enrolled in Indian universities.
Most of these students have Aadhaar cards as foreign nationals, but their visas prevent them from working. Some resort to selling tea or selling hawkers, or doing odd jobs ‘under-the-table’. Qualified adults also struggle to obtain work permits or find willing employers.
The fallout of the political turmoil in Afghanistan has made it difficult to resort to these issues.
After the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the Indian diplomatic mission in Kabul was closed. Eighteen months on, the Government of India does not have diplomatic presence The current embassy in Kabul, while in New Delhi, is run by Afghan officials who were part of the former Ashraf Ghani government.
Last month, ThePrint informed of that the Taliban have begun to pressurize the Government of India to allow a representative to be stationed in New Delhi and that Abdul Kahar BalkhiA controversial spokesman for the Taliban regime’s foreign ministry, was a proposed candidate.
ThePrint has emailed the Ministry of External Affairs seeking a response on whether the Indian government is considering any assistance or visa waivers for Afghan students and refugees. This report will be updated when a response is received.
Read also: ‘Burn my degrees, photos of me without the hijab’: Afghan women in India tell families back home
running out of time
Neda Sadaqat, 20, has been ‘luckier’ than many other Afghan students. She is accompanied by her family and is a first year student in a Delhi University (DU) college.
Sadaqat’s mother was a high-ranking official with an international relief organization in Afghanistan, just as the family of three managed to move to India two weeks before the Taliban government came to power.
Now, his ‘luck’ is running out. Asylum seekers have been surviving on their savings, but now funds are fast dwindling.
“My mother has been looking for a job for months. Everyone either tells him that he is overqualified or turns him away after seeing his documents. My brother is doing voluntary work to earn some extra income. We are worried as my mother’s savings will not last forever,” Sadaqat said.
Sadaqat applied for a scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 2021, but was denied due to asylum seeker status. That year, the ICCR was given scholarship, which provides 650 Afghan students with a stipend, but in 2022, it all denied Applicant from country For Afghan students, this means relying on their own funds to continue studying in India.
Many Afghans usually apply to Indian universities, but this is changing. Last year, the number of applications from Afghanistan fell Zero In DU.
In Sadaqat’s case, an Indian beneficiary came to the rescue.
“After I was denied entry, I decided to work. I got a volunteer job at Coke Studio. One of the mentors I met there paid for my education and put me through college,” she said.
Many families like Neda’s who fled to India now live in Afghan refugee communities in Delhi, spread across areas such as Lajpat Nagar and Malviya Nagar. They rely on doing odd jobs like selling handicrafts or tea by the roadside. Similar is the story elsewhere.
‘Autumn in our hearts’
Habibullah Mohammadi, a Chandigarh University student mentioned earlier, said he was “one step away from poverty”. Still, he will have to somehow manage Rs 1.6 lakh towards his pending fees for the last two semesters to stand a chance of completing his MBA.
People like him, he said, can sometimes get jobs as call center employees – certainly without documentation. “The hours are long and the pay is just enough to scrape by.”
His family is currently seeking asylum in Iran and they do not have the money to send him.
Syed Hussain, a second-year BBA student at Chandigarh University, said that many businesses in Afghanistan had to be shut down under the Taliban regime. As a result, families have been unable to support their children in foreign universities.
Due to the economic disadvantage, families with children in foreign universities have not been able to support them financially.
“Many Afghan students have left this semester and have pending fees for several semesters. Some get a little money from their families every three to six months. It is enough to feed themselves. open eateries/tea stalls or operate illegally in small businesses,” he said.
Mallick Mohammad Naseri, 27, is pursuing PhD in Hindi at Lucknow University. He said that he gets some money under the Junior Research Fellow (JRF) scholarship, but it is about covering the expenses of daily living.
As the eldest son, he feels great guilt about not being able to send money back to his family in Kabul. He is not even sure when he will meet her again. Home is not what it used to be.
“Without opportunities for jobs or education, we cannot go back home,” he said.
Speaking in pure Hindi, Naseri said: “Afghan students has a heart like autumn”- Now it is autumn in our hearts.
(Edited by Asawari Singh)
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