Surat: Bhupendra Pandya, a municipal school teacher, always dreamt of sending his only son Kalpit to study medicine abroad, but arranging finances by taking bank loans too was tough.
But Kalpit, whose mother is an anganwadi worker, is all set to become a doctor with an MBBS degree from Geomedi State University in Georgia. Pandya’s loan was facilitated from Gujarat Unreserved Educational and Economical Development Corporation (GUEEDC).
GUEEDC or Bin Anaamat Nigam was set up in 2018 in the backdrop of the acrimonious Patidar quota stir led by Hardik Patel to demand reservation in education and jobs. The aim of this body was to financially help people from unreserved categories. Loans at 4% interest were offered to people, mostly students, under nine different categories, including foreign education.
Interestingly, the GUEEDC data reveals that the largest chunk (around 60%) of the total Rs 572 crore disbursed to 62.216 people went to students wanting to study abroad.
“We disbursed Rs 346 crore loan to 2,384 students from unreserved category who have flown overseas to accomplish their foreign study dream,” said Rupin Patchigar, immediate ex-director, GUEEDC told TOI.
The term of the corporation's entire management body ended last month.
The cost of medical education in foreign universities is anything between Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. The general sentiment among the general category families was that their children were not able to make a career as doctors due to reservation.
BH Ghodasara, immediate past chairman of GUEEDC, told TOI: “Most students going abroad are from lower and middle-class families. The government made a special exception in the scheme and disbursed loan to all students wanting to pursue medicine after Class XII. Graduation was mandatory for those wanting loans to study other disciplines.”
This year too, around 1,182 applications for foreign studies are also under process.
GUEEDC provides up to Rs 15 lakh loan at 4% simple interest and the beneficiaries have to repay one year after the completion of their study.