“The financial implications for the said decision would be meagre comparing to the total loan portfolio of the banks.” These students and their families would face hardships for life even after they manage to return to India without completing their courses.”
— S Venkatesan, Madurai MP
Madurai MP S Venkatesan has asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to waive off the education loans of students who were studying in war-hit Ukraine. In a letter to Sitharaman, the MP wrote: “I feel that it is high time the government of India came to the rescue of these students and extended a helping hand to wipe away the tears of students from families in the lower strata by waiving their education loans. The financial implications for the said decision would be meagre comparing to the total loan portfolio of the banks.” These students and their families would face hardships for life even after they manage to return to India without completing their courses, he also said.
“Now they are in great difficulty and possibility of default is imminent in many cases.”
“According to some estimates, there are around 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine whose safety and future are endangered due to the ongoing war,” the MP said. The students had gone there to pursue higher education courses such as medicine as the fees are comparatively much higher at private medical colleges in India, he said. He said that most of these students who went to study in Ukraine are from ordinary middle class families, where the parents could not pay the fees from their earnings.
Venkatesan said that these students had availed educational loans from banks in India by giving collateral security of their parents’ hard earned property. “Now they are in great difficulty and possibility of default is imminent in many cases,” he said. He also urged her to advise banks to return collateral securities.
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