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