Unlock Education: 27-Year-Old Engineering Graduate Charul Lalwani Shares Her Experience

Thousands of Indian students heading to the UK, and to other parts of the world, have to pay vast amounts to quarantine before they can join college. And even though the relaxing of norms means institutional quarantines are no longer needed, students still can't join their colleges straightaway and the quarantine still requires an extra expenditure.

#UnlockEducation is a campaign on the NDTV network to help Indian students cover some of the costs of the quarantine on arrival, in the destination country, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

27-year-old engineering graduate Charul Lalwani is now relaxed, courtesy Unlock Education campaign. Her admission to University College in Dublin was a source of joy. After working for TCS, she had been keenly looking forward to some international exposure, with a course in business analytics.

Studying abroad is not easy for students like Charul. Her father works for a private finance company, and her mother is a homemaker. They had everything in place for her travel, accommodation and the course fee, but then came the shocker – a compulsory quarantine for two weeks that drove up the cost of her dreams.

“The process of arranging the funds for education was not that difficult but i got anxious because of this 2 lakhs for quarantine because that was not planned,” said Charu Lalwani.

He father Bharat Kumar Lalwani added, “It was the challenging time, we all were very tensed, but then god helped us.”

Mother Poonam Lalwani said, “We have never planned this. We got the loan for education, this charge for quarantine was tough for us to meet at all cost.”

Quarantine costs to add to the already prohibitive cost of overseas education would have pushed this dream beyond the reach of many if it weren't for people like Adar Poonawalla, whose personal contribution of Rs 10 crore is supporting many students.

Sharing her experience and how Unlock Education campaign came to her and her family rescue, Charu Lalwani added, “I saw this campaign and instantly submitted my application. Before I got the call, I was so anxious, I thought I will not be able to go for my education. I am so grateful for this campaign. I am so thankful to NDTV, Adar Poonawala and other NGO's.”

A record number of 3,200 students from India have been accepted onto UK universities and higher education courses through the country's centralised application system in 2021, marking an increase of 19 per cent over the previous year.