In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, MoS External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said 403 Indian students had died abroad since 2018, of which 91 died in Canada, followed by the UK.
Canada recorded the highest number of Indian student deaths abroad (91) since 2018, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told Rajya Sabha in response to a question Thursday.
V. Muraleedharan, minister of state in the Ministry of External Affairs, told the House that since 2018, there have been 403 recorded deaths of Indian students studying abroad. These deaths are due to a number of reasons that include natural causes, accidents, and medical conditions, the data showed.
The UK (48), Russia (40), the US (36), and Australia (35) recorded the most student deaths after Canada, the minister said.
According to the data that MEA made available to the Rajya Sabha in February 2023, 5,67,607 Indians went abroad to study in Canada between 2018 and 2022 — the second-highest global destination for Indian students.
The US was the leading destination for Indian students in that period, with a total of 6,21,336 Indian students going there to study, while the UK, where 3,17,119 students went to study, was the third-most soughtafter destination.
In response to a question from ThePrint during a routine media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that while Canada happens to be the highest numerically “ I would urge they [the numbers] be looked at in relation to the total number of Indian students in that country”.
“Plus, we need to see if these are caused by violence, car accidents, we don’t know,” he said.
“There are individual incidents where there has been foul play etc. Our consulates do reach out to the families and take it up with local authorities, what further prosecution or other investigation that they are pursuing”.
