New Delhi: The upcoming India-Pakistan match is considered as one of the highest awaited clashes. The match scheduled for tomorrow, opening match of both India and Pakistan, is a cause of concern for many Kashmiri parents whose children are away from home for studies.
When a cricket match between India and Pakistan commences, Kashmiri students are accused of favoring Pakistan that often becomes a cause of fight with other students.
Last year on March 2, at Meerut's Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU), 67 students were expelled for cheering after Pakistan's win. Meerut police had even slapped strong anti-sedition laws against the students but the charges were later dropped after J&K CM Omar Abdullah intervened.
Worried parents caution their children not to get out of hostel on Sunday during or after the match. The parents allege that their kids are often targeted of wrongdoing and that's why they have advised them not get out of their hostel room at any cost.
Students from the Kashmir valley have turned to the other parts of the country over the past few years for studies because of lack of facilities in the sate. The educational infrastructure in the valley has gone to the gallows in the last decade.
Over the past few years, centre introduced a few programmes to train and educate students in their own home but has not succeeded much. Manmohan Singh led UPA government started ‘Udaan' to train 40,000 graduates and postgraduates and to place them with leading Indian companies. So far, only 3,500 have been trained and only half of them are drawing salaries.
Another initiative of erstwhile Congress-led government, ‘Himayat' targeted to train 100,000 school dropouts in various skills. The government has only placed 15,000, far behind the target.
A scheme run by the HRD Ministry- Prime Minister's Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS), funds studies of Kashmiri students in professional colleges. The target was to fund studies of 100,000 in five years, but so far, only 5,000 students have profited from the scheme.
Kashmiri students are now present in large numbers in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Punjab, Bhopal and most of western Uttar Pradesh. Many of private funded colleges and universities have even set up admission cells in Srinagar to tap the potential admissions.
