By Pratibedan Baidya

Death of nine Nepali students in less than a month has raised serious questions about the safety of young Nepalis in the United States of America.

From left, Nishma Timilsina, 20, Utshav Basnet, 19, and Bedija Kharel, 20 (File photo)
From left, Nishma Timilsina, 20, Utshav Basnet, 19, and Bedija Kharel, 20 (File photo)

Seven young students who were pursuing higher studies in the United States to shape their future were killed in less than a week early this month in separate car accidents. As the news is very painful for every Nepali, His Majesty’s Government is yet to take notice of the tragedy let alone mobilise its machinery towards ensuring safety of the Nepali students.

Four students Amrit Dhital, 21; Prahlad Gurung, 22; Puskar Acharya, 21 and Subash Gurung, 20; were killed when a car they were traveling in collided with another vehicle in Texas, United States, last Friday (Jan. 6).

Subash, Prahlad and Amrit were studying at San Jacinto College, Houston, while Pukar was a student at the University of Texas, Tyler, according to the Nepalese Association of Houston.

The Association added that all four had arrived in the US on January 2004 through the Nobel Institute, a Kathmandu-based education consultancy firm that advises students to study abroad.

Amrit was a resident of Banepa and Subash, Pukar and Prahlad were residents of Kathmandu.

Just two days earlier (on Jan. 4), three more Nepali students, Utsav Basnet, 19, Bedija Kharel, 20 and Nishma Timilsina, 21, were killed when their car was hit by another vehicle on a southern Minnesota highway.

All three– Utsav, Bedija and Nishma — were enrolled in classes at Southwest Minnesota State. The students were off school on winter break, reports said.

In Memoriam: The school where Subash Gurung studied recalls its former student.
According to the state patrol police, the three were not wearing seat belts, and their car was hit when the driver tried to make a U-turn from the right shoulder of a two-lane highway.

For a young student from a developing country burning with high ambition, America offers a vast ocean of opportunities. For many parents in Nepal, sending their kids to the US for higher studies is a lifetime ambition. But little do they realize that once out of a “closely guarded society” like that of Nepal, young students are least prepared to a life of freedom, hard work and technical advancement as in the US.

Talking to Nepalnews, Milan Dixit, principal of Rato Bangala School, a leading private sector-run school in Lalitpur, said, “Lack of proper orientation and discipline among Nepali students are main reasons for such accidents in the US.”

“We were shocked after the news that Nepali students were killed for not following traffic rules. So orientation should be compulsory for them before going there,” she added.

Officials don’t have data of how many Nepali students are currently studying in the US nor is there any mechanism—both from the government or private sector—to orient young Nepali students to what type of life style they will be exposed to once they land abroad.

Students need not get permission from the government for studying abroad, as they can directly contact the foreign university and start enrolment process. They only need recommendation from the Ministry of Education to buy foreign currency to finance their studies.

“Private educational institutions and consulting firms, which charge large amount of money for facilitating enrolment of Nepali students for foreign universities must provide them orientation about basic safety issues while studying abroad,” said Mrs. Dixit.

Most of the students remain unaware about safety issues like road safety and environment abroad. “Young students are usually unaware about lifestyle as an alien. So they need orientation to cope with the situation in a completely different place,” she added.

Dr. Saubhagya Shah, an anthropologist who studied at the prestigious Harvard University of the US, says latest accidents are a tragic and big news for Nepal but in the US they are normal incidents. “Thousands of people die in America every year in road accidents, in such incidents unfortunately some Nepalese were also killed this year. A small mistake by an individual can cost a number of lives as the speed of vehicles is usually very high in the America.”

Shah, however, points towards growing negligent behavior among Nepali students once they step out of their homeland. “Most of these students were residing in the US for more than a year. So, they must have had enough opportunity to apprise themselves about the lifestyles there,” said Shah. “More than orientation, the issue is negligence among young people, including Nepalis, to follow traffic rules and regulations,” he added.

The number of Nepali students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities grew by 11 percent last year to 4,861, according to a latest report published by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

When contacted by Nepalnews, an official at the US Education Foundation in Kathmandu said his office helps aspiring Nepali students to find out suitable universities and colleges. “Issues like traffic rules (in the US) usually don’t surface in such discussions,” he added.

Gandhi Pandit, a lawyer who practiced in New York before deciding to return to Nepal a few years back, told Nepalnews that if the accident had occurred due to the mistake of other people, family members of the deceased could claim for compensation. “If the accident had occurred due to the mistake of others, they can claim compensation on the basis of the impact of death upon family members,” said Pandit.

“Family members of the victims can also claim for insurance if the deceased had insured himself/herself,” he added.

But neither family members nor educational consulting firms advise Nepali students to buy life insurance policies.

“Nepali students are risking their lives in the absence of appropriate orientation. Though some educational institutions are starting to provide orientation, it is not sufficient and needs to be expanded,” said Mrs. Dixit.

As long as young Nepali students are not given proper orientation and practice risky behavior out of negligence or out of temptation, such tragic news will continue to pour in from across the seven seas. nepalnews.com Jan 13 06

Related News
– Three Nepali students killed in US
– Four Nepalis killed in US car accident

Response from our valued readers on the article (edited):

Sajan Gautam, Houston, TX, USA writes:

Dear Editor,

We do appreciate the concern the columnist has about the safety of young students who are studying here in the USA. But, we find the article a little tilted to put blames on the students for some of those accidents.

For the information, most of those incidents were not the fault of the student drivers but they were the victims. For instance, Amrit, Prahlad, Pukar and Subash were following the traffic rules when 72 year maniac drove at an extremely high speed breaking every traffic rules and took the life of these young people including her own. It is an involuntary manslaughter and lawyer is working on to get at least the financial compensation from the faulty party.

The columnist’s concern is very genuine but it does portray a different picture of some incidents than the ground reality.

Baikuntha B Thapa, Texas writes;

Dear Editor,

I am somehow disappointed for the news you just published regarding the topic “Are young Nepali students safe in the US? (nepalnews special)”.

I know there have been several tragic incidents happening in US recently. I agree with the writer that lack of orientation is one of the things that we need to consider. But let me make one thing clear that none of those three incidents were caused by lack of orientation. All of those tragic incidents were caused by other’s fault.

I have been involved in Nepalese communities’ activities for a long time. As a matter of fact we hosted ANA convention 2005 in Dallas, last year. I was chairperson of that convention. So we all are concerned for the safety and well being of Nepalese in US as well as abroad.

Rajesh Kumar writes;

Hello,

I was very shocked to read the news, entitled “Are you Nepali students safe in the US?” While reading the news, for me – it seems like you guys are trying to prove the fact that the Nepalese students who died in two different car accidents – was because of their lack of knowledge about the traffic rules and regulations.

To tell you the truth, before getting the driver license here in the United States, you must know all the rules and regulations.

I guarantee that more than 95% of Nepalese students who have US driver’s license, they know most of the traffic rules and regulations. It is obvious that if you negligent those rules, you may suffer by the accident.

It was not the fault of Nepalese students who died in the car accidents. In the first accident that happened in Minnesota: the driver was an American and the accident occurred because of the slippery road. In the second accident that happened in Texas: it was the lady’s (another driver’s) fault and the accident happened when she was trying to pass another vehicle and she was driving in the wrong lane.

If you have looked into both accidents news closely, in both accidents the car was hit by another car and both other cars were driving by old people (Minnesota – 82 yrs old man and Texas – 72 yrs old woman). It has been a big issue over here in the United States whether or not to give the driving permission to old people because old people are very slow to react on any action.

Pramod Pandey writes;

Editor,

Your article, Are young Nepali students safe in the US?, has added to our grief.

You should obtain the accident report before you comment on something that you don’t know about, just don’t write something that increase sale of you paper.