Every year hundreds of students from India go to USA for higher education. A degree from a prestigious US university will change their lives for ever. Now, these students are suffering from insecurity.
Why? on campus violence. University is a place of peace and quiet. Getting shot at the university is the most awful thing one can think of. BBC reports:
Ravi Tej Kavalipati, president of the Indian Students' Association at LSU, says the Indian student body was gripped by a sense of insecurity after the double homicide.
"The worrying thing is that the incident happened in a part of the campus where families live," says Mr Kavalipati, who advised Indian students to travel in groups for their safety.
The students' deaths have shocked their families in India
A little more than a month later, the bullet-riddled body of Abhijit Mahato, 29, a student at Duke University in North Carolina, was found inside his apartment on 18 January.
Mahato's friends told the BBC that they are still struggling to come to terms with their loss.
The 1 March death of Akkaldelvi Srinivas, a medical student in Pennsylvania, was later ruled a suicide.
Vinay Hariharan, a master's student at Georgia Institute of Technology, says Indian students are "definitely worried by these incidents, specially after the LSU shootings".
He says more students are opting to live on campus since off-campus accommodation is considered unsafe in Atlanta.
Between 2006 and 2007, Indians students were the highest to come to the United States and still they are coming in. These on campus violence incidents have been a big shock for them. Many students are now reconsidering their decision of coming to USA.
Because of poor educational standard and limited number of qualified institutions many students from countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan go to USA. Many get financial support from their families and many continue their education with great hardship. Even I admit that acquiring a degree from a reputed US university is very tough. USA is a developed country and the universities represent that high standard. Such incidents will further mar the images of the universities and USA. The USA government and university authorities must take steps to stop these incidents from happening.
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