Getting an SFI membership is now a cakewalk for left-leaning Indian students studying abroad. All that they have to do is fill up a Google Doc form with their name, email address and other details and pay a fee of $2. The online application has been open since July 17.
Since inception, the organisation's constitution has had a provision for overseas members. The latest move, according to the leaders is to make sure that more Indians studying abroad participate in SFI's decision-making activities and coordinate better with each other to raise their voice against the problems they face abroad. "We kickstarted online applications to ensure that students get SFI memberships quickly and effectively," says Nitheesh Narayanan, an SFI Central Secretariat member. "Indians, who are studying abroad face a lot of issues. Case in point, racial discrimination. So, we wanted to tackle these issues in a better way and build international solidarity," he says.
Student uprisings and protests aren't restricted to India. In the past week, student communities in Hong Kong, Sudan and London had made it to the news for raising their voice against the government and putting forward their demands. Nitheesh feels that this is the right time for the organisation to establish its presence globally. "Today, student uprisings are happening frequently all over the world. The reason? Public funding in education and research is getting lesser. So, we need to raise our voices against this and for that, we need proper coordination," he says.
Another motive behind this move was to make sure that former members of the organisation, who had to leave the SFI in order to move abroad, can come back to it and take part in its activities. "Overseas members were present previously and were very much active, especially when the Soviet Union existed. We need to bring things back to full swing," he says.
So far, students studying in Japan, Germany, Canada and the UK have registered online to be SFI members.
