On study programmes abroad, students stuck with OCI cards

When 19-year-old Prerana Munipalli flew to Ohio’s Baldwin Wallace University on a student exchange programme on January 6, she expected to return to Bengaluru on May 8.

Little did Prerana expect that the coronavirus lockdown would prompt the government to suspend her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card and leave her back in the United States. "I'm currently in Texas with a relative,” she said. “I contacted the Indian Embassy in Washington, and they asked me to wait.”

Prerana, a third year BCom student at Christ University, must readjust her sleeping schedule to attend online classes, which happen in the afternoon local time. “I have to stay up all night (to attend class), when it is 4 am for me here,” she said.

Prerana is one of many teenaged Bengaluru students stranded abroad since the OCI card they hold has been suspended.

The Overseas Citizens of India have repeatedly petitioned to the government to allow the students back into the country, but the Minister of State for External Affairs reportedly said recently that a decision on the issue will be taken soon.

But the wait is too unnerving for 20-year-old Shrikar Krishnamurthy, a BCom final year student in Bengaluru, who is stuck at Chesterfield in the United Kingdom.

“I came to Barcelona for an exchange programme and later visited my relatives in England,” Shrikar, who has taken residence with his uncle and aunt in the UK, said. “I contacted the Indian consulate in Barcelona. They asked me to fill out a form and give my details.”

Ravi Venkatesam, who runs several schools in the city, is anxious about his daughter Megha, who is doing a one-year diploma course in arts in the UK. “She was supposed to return home in May. She is an American passport holder, but cannot go to the US since we know no one there. She can’t come here either since she holds an OCI card,” Venkatesam said.

Parent undertakes survey

A survey initiated by Venkatesam to find out the number of students stranded abroad received 506 responses. “They won’t even fill two full planes,” he said. “A vast majority are students. The size of the problem is small enough for the government to address. It is not million (of OCIs) who need help.”

The students and their parents are now tweeting daily with the hashtag #getourkidsback.