“My dream ended even before it began,” said Ubair Fayaz, a hopeful contender of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scholarship sponsored by Bangladesh that is awarded to meritorious students to pursue MBBS in the country’s private and government medical colleges. Ubair, who is a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, passed his Class XII in the year 2021 from the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBose) and had applied for the scholarship for the year 2023.
“I have already lost two years waiting for this opportunity. I had no other options available for pursuing MBBS in India as the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) cut-offs are really high,” felt Ubair, after the list of those who bagged the scholarship was put out on July 31, 2023 by Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME), Bangladesh.
Ubair’s case sheds light on the complexities one might face while wanting to pursue an MBBS education. In India, this year, for 48,012 medical seats, more than 20 lakh students had appeared for the NEET examination. Scholarships, like the one SAARC offers, are a way for these meritorious students to pursue their medical dreams with assured financial backing and are a hassle-free alternative to competitive exams such as the NEET.
But with the passing of time, the competition increases too. The student failed to procure a place on the list. His grievances rose from a sense of disbelief that even after achieving an aggregate of 98.6%, scoring a 98 in Biology, 99 in Physics and 99 in Chemistry and with a total of 493 marks out of 500 in his J&K Board of State Examination (JKBose) for Class XII in the year 2021, he could not qualify for it.
To seek justice for himself, he wrote to Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, State President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ravinder Raina and the Ministry of External Affairs, requesting them to look into the matter, but to no avail. “I received no response. I decided that I cannot stop here, hence I approached the Lieutenant Governor again.”
This time, Ubair’s grievances were taken up by the resident Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir, and a circular dated August 8 was forwarded to the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, requesting concerned officials to look into the matter and send intimation to their office at the earliest.
But, this time too, Fayaz had to taste defeat.
“I know that all my doors have closed but all I can do is hope for a second list and find my name there,” says Fayaz, who hopes that his dreams will not see an end here.
It is to be noted that the Bangladesh government reserved a total of 104 seats for MBBS and 13 seats for BDS courses for the students from the seven SAARC nations namely India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan, out of which 22 MBBS seats are reserved for Indian nationals.
