India’s Brain Drain — A student’s perspective
India, predicted to be the next biggest economy, is going through some fascinating social and economic changes. One of the fascinating aspects is that India’s demographic is relatively younger than to the rest of the world, an intriguing aspect to consider in this day and age. With the advent of globalization and the rise of technology, India has profited with the growth in the IT sector, increase in exports and imports and an overall expansion of their working capacity. The majority of middle-class citizens who have gathered around this wealth have thrived and are continuing to benefit from the opportunities at hand. This growth has benefited the education sector and private schools that are affordable to the general public are growing. Schools have also become internationally oriented, offering internationally recognized programs such as the IB (international baccalaureate) which has increased by 10 folds in the last decade.
I was lucky enough to experience studying at an international school for my final two years of high school. I was immediately aware of the aims and ambitions of my peers and the opportunity to be able to study abroad for my bachelors was an opportunity that I could not pass up. Leaving the country to experience new cultures, meet people from different parts of the world and an overall life education that came with this opportunity were priceless. Upon graduation, I chose to follow my ambitions and goals at Erasmus University, Rotterdam in the beautiful country of The Netherlands.
I have always wanted and aimed to practice my trade and work in India. It is easy to get lost in the comforts of a developed country and I often feel it is easier to live in the Netherlands than compared to India. I was always aware of this aspect of going abroad but I never truly understood it until I experienced it for myself. I see my peers from my own high school, already deciding to continue to work and live in the new countries that they educate themselves in. I believe in equal rights and I believe everybody is free to choose where and what they want to do, but these personal choices are causing some big social problems in India.
Brain Drain are the loss of educated minds and highly trained citizens that have migrated to a different country permanently. It is also known as human capital flight and is one of the many problems India is facing currently. With India’s growing population and the feature of it being such a young demographic, it is absolutely necessary that we need to have this young demographic be able to contribute to this growth of the country.
I know it is hard to believe that the 17% of Indian students that can afford to study abroad have such a massive impact on the development of the India. It would not be if India was a country that had a high quality of public education.
But the truth is the quality of education is not up to the standards and some estimates say that up to 75% of the educated youth are not considered employable. There is a rapid increase in a number of students enrolling in higher education but with the speed at which is, it is happening the quality of education is undermined. There are a variety of reasons, for instance, lack of student to teacher ratio, that is hindering the quality of education that the youth of India receive. There are numerous solutions to solving the quality of education, no doubt, but the timelines of these solutions are what we struggle with in today’s world. The reforms will come, the quality of education will improve and the gross -enrollment will increase, but will they increase in time for this young population of India to leverage or will it become a demographic catastrophe?
This is where the globally educated Indian citizens can come to play. As global citizens, we have educated ourselves with broader knowledge than what is confined to our textbooks and course material. We have educated ourselves in working with contrasting personalities, situations and challenges. Whatever we may study abroad, the vital education comes in adapting to the unfamiliar and being able to work, succeed and accomplish in the unfamiliar. Using this societal education and implementing it into your line of interests changes the way processes are done. It is a fresh perspective, a breath of fresh air. India, a country that for over 3000 years has transmitted knowledge from its own gene pool, needs a divergent way of thinking and implementing ideas. Scholars who come back to the country, learning these different ways to solve problems, implementing solutions that are different and overall having the local societal knowledge of the people at hand will be vital in bringing about change. We are the fortunate ones that have been able to educate ourselves abroad and demographical timeframe suits us to make concrete changes to the future of India. The societal foundations, although not perfect, have been laid and present us with the opportunity to bring our global education back into the country.
Of course, there are numerous problems in our country to address but we as global citizens are the ones that are educationally and societally capable of addressing these problems. The opportunities are present, the structures erected and the sources available. We find ourselves at a unique point in our history to be able to give back to the country that has raised us and we can give back substantially indeed.
