This piece is a testimonial, and our general disclaimer about testimonials applies. We have spoken to some students at an instute and are faithfully reporting what they have said; we have not fact-checked these claims and make no claim about the truth of what the students told us.
This piece is about some events at the Madras School of Social Work (MSSW) in Chennai. In the past, we have covered the unjust dismissal of Prof R G Sudharson from MSSW,1 essentially for speaking up on behalf of social justice. Since then, we have been in contact with some students at the college, who have told us about the horrific mismanagement they are facing.
Testimonials
The students set up an online portal to collect anonymous testimonials from students, regarding the harrassment they faced. These testimonials were posted on the instagram page @mssw600008.
Together, they tell a story of an institute that is deeply sexist and abusive to its students. Some of the facts brought out are as follows. Faculty apparently feel empowered to discriminate against women and make constant comments about their attire and behaviour. They create a toxic and non-supportive environment for their students and often abuse them. Women who live in the hostel have very limited freedoms.
Here are some of the testimonials, from their instagram page:
The last two weeks have seen another addition to the litany of brutal wars ravaging our brothers and sisters on this little planet we call home; Ukraine has joined Syria, Yemen, etc, to the club of countries having to fight off invasions by imperialist superpowers, each one of them invaded for the economic and geopolitical interests of a small ruling class of ultra-rich oligarchs. But one thing that’s different this time, for Indians at least, is the surprising (to many of us) revelation that there are around 20,000 Indians stuck in the country, many attending medical colleges.
We at NotA have been watching, along with all of you, all the videos of young men and women pleading for their lives. They are being bombed1 and personally attacked2 by the Russians, and they are being beaten up and denied entry at the Romanian and Polish borders. There’s also a possibility that some are being used as human shields by Ukrainian forces.3
The government has not responded at all to the rapidly changing situation in Ukraine. They have failed to formulate or convey any concrete plans as to bringing back the Indian students.4 Instead, they are seen shouting on social media with the only concrete advice to reach the borders as soon as possible.5 As if it wasn’t obvious otherwise. There have been a few flights arranged for these students, but not nearly enough. And our great prime minister, immortal be his name, had a characteristically clear and competent response that, as always, completely solved the problem: he instructed us to study medicine in India and not smaller foreign nations, and asked the private sector to invest in building more medical colleges.6
This response is obviously unbelievably callous to the students already caught in such a horrible situation, and obviously inadequate for the situation at hand. What is less obvious is that it is calling for a solution that will make the problem even worse, in the long term. What Modi will not tell you, because it is not in his interest to save lives, is that privatisation is the main cause of the predicament of these poor students.
It’s not hard to see why. A private medical college in India costs Rs. half–one crore, and a medical college in Ukraine costs Rs. 20 lakhs — less than half as much.7 A difference of Rs 30 lakhs is more than 15 years of salary for four out of every five Indians.8 So, of course, they prefer a Ukrainian college to a private college in India. But wait, what about public colleges in India? Aligarh Muslim University fees9 are only Rs 40,000 a year! Surely that’s the best option!
Here’s the point, though. To get a seat in a public medical college, there need to be seats at public medical colleges. India right now has around 80,000 medical seats every year, and over 15 lakh applicants!10 Less than half of these are in government colleges.11
The number of medical colleges isn’t just much less than the number of applicants, it’s also significantly less than what India needs. The WHO recommends that a country should have one doctor for every 1,000 people; in India, there is only one for every 10,000!12 So, we need ten times as many colleges, and they can either be government colleges or they can be empty colleges.
This is part of a much larger trend of ignoring education in India. Many NEET-aspiring and enrolled kids in medical colleges (sometimes as young as age 17) commit suicides.13 Official reported suicides associated to NEET increased to 14 in 2021 from 7 in 2019; the number is only getting worse due to the pandemic.14 Total number of student suicides in 2020 was 12, 526!15 This was 8.2% of total deaths! The number is even higher than that of farmer suicides,16 which we all agree is a huge crisis that needs to be dealt with. These large numbers can only be because of the inadequacy of the education system.17 How dare the government lay allegations on students who want to pursue education outside when the only option left is either suicide or leaving India. Hardly has the prime minister cared for the students of his own country, let alone those outside.
Right now, there are students stuck in a warzone, fearing for their lives. They are stuck in a warzone because there is a lack of medical education in India, and because what little is there is quickly becoming less and less affordable. The violence these young men and women are facing is being inflicted by Russian troops and Russian bombs, but it is caused by privatisation and the neglect of public health in India.
Hindustan Times. (2022, March 3). Ukrainian Forces using Indian students as human shield, says Russia | Ukraine rebuts startling claim [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yJHl6UEfzA↩︎
Deswal, B., & Singhal, V. (2016). Problems of medical education in India. International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 1905–1909. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20162063 . The graph is from here. ↩︎
It should be mentioned here that this is somewhat misleading, since the official count of farmer suicides excludes landless and women farmers. And the same can be speculated for the number of reported deaths of marginalised students. ↩︎
I have been looking for books that help me understand our world, and help me articulate my struggles with it for a while now. This is one of those books.
Tools for Conviviality laid bare why I find difficulty managing the speed at which the world operates — we’ve opted for a world that wants to go too fast at everything: cars, growth, new technology, travel, work. And my sense of being doesn’t operate at that speed. It has taken me years to justify to myself that it’s ok to operate at my own pace. Now I can actually tell you why it’s ok.
We make our tools and our tools make us. Illich takes the adage and truly sees how this affects our world. He defines the word tool in the broadest sense, as:
… those aspects of our current society that have been rationally designed.
Any system created through reasoned thinking is a tool.
Notes on the Academy 