The Tamil Nadu government has appointed 20 councillors to talk to nearly 1,500 medical students who have returned from war-hit Ukraine and provide counselling to them on handling stress and finding out their requirements. The councillors will also talk to their parents.
Launching the tele-counselling as part of 104 helplines, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the councillors will spend time on the phone with 1,456 students who have reached Tamil Nadu via Delhi. “The councillors will talk to the students and parents on Wednesday and Thursday. They will not just provide counselling to the students and their family members but also speak to them on what needs to be done for the future of their children,” Subramanian told reporters.
He said the councillors will submit a report with details of students and their opinion on what should be done for the continuation of their studies. The minister also said the state government was prepared to help the students in continuing their studies in India, but that the decision rests with the Union Government.
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Subramanian also listed the steps taken by the state government in ensuring the well-being of the students. His comments came days after Chief Minister M K Stalin Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “find a way out” to enable the students to continue their studies in medical colleges in the country.
Over 2,000 students from Tamil Nadu are pursuing medicine in various universities across Ukraine. While 1,456 of them have returned home so far, efforts are on to rescue and bring back the remaining students.
Given the current unprecedented situation in Ukraine, Stalin had said that it may not be practically possible for the students to return to their colleges in Ukraine. The uncertainty is likely to prevail even after the cessation of hostilities and till the restoration of normalcy in their Universities, he had said. “I would therefore request your urgent intervention in taking up this issue with the National Medical Commission and the relevant Ministries. They may be directed to immediately find a way out to enable the affected students to continue their studies in medical colleges in India from the stage from which their studies in Ukraine have been disrupted,” Stalin had said in a letter.
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