Indonesia-India cultural links

Indonesia-India cultural links

I was going through the article Exploring Indonesian and
Indian cultural links published in The Jakarta Post on April 11,
and realized that Indonesia and India share an ancient history.

India is one of the oldest democracies in the world. The
concept of Shodash Maha Janapada is a testimony to this and now,
when Indonesia is a rising democracy, if India reaches out,
especially in the field of education, it will benefit the common
people here.

India has one of the best and cheapest education systems in
the world. Presently Microsoft, Intel, etc., are some of the
companies managed by the Indians.

If India offered scholarships to deserving Indonesian
students, maybe just 25 seats in the areas of medicine,
engineering, hotel management, tourism, IT, nursing, etc., it
would be a real continuation of cooperation between the two
countries.

So many Indonesian women leave the country to earn money as
maids. If Indian nursing schools opened up branches in Indonesia
or offered Indonesian women scholarships to study in India, local
women could earn higher salaries as trained nurses in developing
countries, where the aging population is increasing. Indonesian
people have great compassion, and very clean habits.

The Indonesian women could prove to be excellent nurses with
much higher earning potential than as housemaids. I take this
opportunity to draw the attention of the Honorable Ambassador of
India to these suggestions. I am sure it would go a long way to
further cementing the relations between the two great countries.

MEERA BAHUKHANDI, Jakarta