While a significant number of Indian students worldwide have been flown down safely to India, there are many in different parts of the globe including in the US who are still stranded owing to stringent lockdown measures and travel ban imposed due to Coronavirus pandemic. However, given the intense situation, the Indian Embassy is still ensuring that the stranded citizens, especially students are taken care of.
With the spike in Coronavirus cases in the USA, students staying in the hostels were asked to vacate it. This situation has left many Indian students with no roof over their heads and even with no scope to return back to India given the travel ban imposed on international flights for a week from March 22 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
However, in this moment of crisis, the Indian American hoteliers have come forward to the rescue of these students and have offered them more than 6,000 rooms in nearly 700 hotels for free of cost and in some cases food. The step was taken following a call from the Indian Embassy.
The Indian Embassy has been running a round-the-clock helpline since last week for the students in the US, who number over 2, 50,000. Most of these hotels offered are in and around universities and colleges, but hotels owners from across the country have come up in large numbers to the call given by community leaders, who have roped in Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) for the purpose.
Commenting on the situation, Regional director of AAHOA Upper Midwest Kalpesh Joshi said that, “they have created a master list of the available hotel rooms, which was being constantly updated. Free accommodation would be allocated in coordination with the Indian Embassy and its consulates.”
As per reports, the rooms would be allocated to students on the recommendation of the Indian Embassy and its consulates in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and New York.
Joshi also sent out a video message to his hotelier colleagues: “Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, our Indian students in the US are out of a shelter. Let’s work together. As a hotelier, I would like to request all my hotelier friends to come forward… let’s provide some rooms to the students.”
Besides, Boston-based Computer Society of India (North America) has also collaborated with AAHOA to help students and Indian IT professionals searching for emergency accommodation due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Kalpesh Joshi said that “initially there was a suggestion to charge a convenience fee of USD 20-25 per day from the students. But when a few of them offered free rooms and free meals, everyone agreed to it.”
Indian American hotelier couple KK Mehta and Chandra Mehta has offered more than 100 rooms to Indian students at their two prime properties each near the Times Square and Barclays Center in New York City, said Prem Bhandari on behalf of the hotels. The Indian Consulate in New York had contacted them in this regard about 10 days ago, he said.
“These students are the future of both India and the United States. All the top Indian American CEOs, scientists and doctors came to this country as a student. It’s our moral duty to help them with our resources,” Bhandari said.
India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu said in a tweet, “It is heartening to see that Indian; Indian American and other hotel owners are coming forward to help people with accommodation in these testing times. Together we can overcome the fight against COVID19!”
Florida-based Vipul Patel, the national president of Asian American Store Owners Association, said support for the Indian students have been pouring in from the Indian American hoteliers. “I have not come across any hotel owner who said no to us.”