Why Indians are terrified after death of Nitin Garg

Gautam Gupta
6 January 2010
Source : www.heraldsun.com.au
 
 
THE 70,000 or so Indian tertiary-level students in Victoria learn many things, some from their peers, some from those who have been through the system already and some from their friends.

It's a steep learning curve for them all.
 
They learn just how much their parents must pay to send them here, they learn about how Australian society operates, they learn about how the transport system works, they learn about the delicate balance between earning a degree or other qualification and earning their keep at the same time.
 
Does Victoria have a problem with racially-motivated violence? Have your say below.

It's a process of constant osmosis. It is a completely new life experience in a foreign land, thousands of miles away from their families and their loved ones and from all those in whom they habitually put their entire trust.
 
But the solitary thing that no one has ever taught them is how to send a body back home.
 
This was precisely the challenge that confronted the housemates of Nitin Garg after the 21-year-old university graduate was fatally stabbed on Saturday night, just before starting work as night manager at a Hungry Jack's store in West Footscray.
 
His friends had already dealt with the whole gamut of emotions. First there was the shock, when they received a phone call from one of Garg's co-workers, telling them he had been stabbed but that it seemed to be a minor wound.
 
Then came the hope, sustaining them as they travelled as quickly as they could to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
 
Next came the fear, when they were told by a doctor that their friend was in a critical condition and that his chances of survival were perilously slim.
 
And finally came grief, followed by an entire gamut of emotions, when they were told that he had died but that they could not see the body.
 
Among the many questions I asked his grief-stricken housemates was whether anybody had offered them assistance of any sort. Had a state-level politician spoken to them, or perhaps someone from Canberra?
 
The answer was no. Had anyone from the Indian Government been in touch with them? Again, no.
 
This was less than 24 hours after Garg's death, but no one in authority had been in contact with them to find out how they were coping.
 
These young guys, in their 20s, had no support system. On the face of it, they said they were coping with the tragedy, but I honestly feel the sorrow had not even begun to sink in.
 
I asked if they needed any financial assistance, but they said they were fine. So I gave them the contact details for a psychologist and I recommended that they seek trauma counselling.
 
Quite honestly, what kind of society leaves youngsters to find their own solution to a crisis like this?
 
As they cope with their own torrent of emotions, they're not studying and you could also understand it if they chose not to work this week. What a plight - they've had to wear the cost of many phone calls to India, not just to the shattered Garg family back there, but also to organise the repatriation of their friend's body.
 
In this kind of situation, support is not just about the money, it's about infrastructure that students can use at a time when they're most vulnerable.
 
After the death, I had to be extremely aware of their sensitivities. In their shock and as they struggled to cope with the tragedy, they might have said "yes" to some of my questions about their welfare when they meant "no" and "no" when indeed they meant "yes".
 
But this is precisely why I have put my career as an audiologist on hold. To me, it is more important to serve FISA (the Federation of Indian Students of Australia) in a voluntary capacity.
 
I left my practice in December 2008, with the intention of volunteering here for a month or so.
Each month I think it might be worthwhile to stay on for another few weeks - and each time, something happens to another Indian student and I resolve to stay here until we can make a difference.
 
FISA does not receive any funding, but the most important thing for me is to try to make a difference. I was not raised to look on in silence when I can make a difference to the lives of thousands of students.
 
All up, it costs an Indian student about $60,000 for a two-year course or about $45,000 for a trade course here in Victoria. That's a huge financial burden for their families back home.
 
Yes, we all understand that no amount of money can possibly guarantee their safety, but every Australian should be concerned about the persistent violence.
 
Now, with a death that has sent shock waves through the whole Indian community, I feel as if things are getting cumulatively harder instead of easier.
 
The strange thing is that the State Government refuses to acknowledge the issue of racism that needs to be legitimately debated after the continuing attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.
 
If you asked me my opinion, I would definitely say there is an element of racism in Australia - and this is backed by academic research from the Australian National University.
 
The fact Pauline Hanson can get a mandate, however small, in this country says something about this issue.
 
I do accept that by and large this is not a racist country, but even if 10 per cent of the total population do not conform with the majority view, it follows that every tenth person you encounter on the street, aboard a train or tram or in the workplace could well hold racist views.
 
Despite the great work done by many sections of society to make our students feel welcome, it just takes one person or one incident to take us back to the very beginning and make us feel that no progress has been made at all.
 
But still we continue to bury our heads in the sand and say the attacks on Indian students are not race-related.
 
Well, let me tell you that the public - and by extension, the authorities as well - do not hear about all the incidents.
 
In the main, this was because many students were under the mistaken impression that if they made a formal report about an attack, they would be stripped of their visas and sent home.
 
To this day, under-reporting is still a problem because of this common misconception, despite our efforts to tell students that no action can be taken unless reports are lodged.
 
The public also has the mistaken impression that only Indian males are being attacked. This is not the case. Female students from India have been attacked. But they refuse to contact officials because they are scared that their parents will immediately order them back to India.
 
There have been break-ins while these students have been at home and laptops and other pieces of equipment have been stolen, but the women will not make official reports.
 
Let's assume, for a moment, that these are not race-related crimes. Then can someone please tell me why ANU data shows fresh graduates of Indian or Asian background have 64 per cent less chance of finding permanent employment in their chosen fields?
 
Gautam Gupta is spokesman of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia