“East or West, home is the best,” is a well-known proverb. As a rule, do people stick to the land of their birth? They do not want to emigrate to other countries Notwithstanding this some people immigrate and settle in such advanced countries as the U.S.A., UK and Arab countries.
They are generally attracted by better wages, more modern amenities of life, greater facilities and chances to prosper and more glamour of a luxurious foreign environment. Some young men are also lured by easy access to the opposite sex in the advanced countries of the West.
Ordinarily a country would not mind if its mediocre citizens migrate But if its intellectuals and brainy people migrate, it receives a serious setback. It is the migration of the intellectuals from one country to another that has recently been termed Brain Drain.
Sometimes the term is wrongly used for the migration of all the educated persons. But strictly speaking, it is applied to the emigration of those geniuses or intellectual giants whose services are also needed by their motherland. Their migration certainly depletes (exhausts) the brain power of the land of their birth.
It may be noted that Brain Drain is not a new phenomenon. In the olden days, great conquerors carried away with them not only the looted things but also the intellectuals of the country which was invaded and conquered.
Some short-sighted leaders like Hitler would compel the intellectuals like Einstein and space-research scholars to migrate to other countries simply because they were Jews and hence non-Christians.
They migrated to the USA which got form them the secret of the Atom Bomb and Rockets. As a result of this, the U.S. became much stronger and more prosperous, and Germany received a setback because it lost its brain power.
But most of our young men go abroad and settle there willingly because of the greater facilities for work, better remuneration and superior standards of living there. Most of the brain people of India have migrated to the USA and other advanced countries of the West for this very reason.
Some of the Indian nationals have earned name and fame abroad. For instance Dr Hargobind Khorana, the co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 1968. and Dr S. Chandra Sekhar, an astrophysicist, is world-known figures.
Such talented persons and intellectual giants might not have achieved much, had they remained on the land of their birth for want of adequate facilities for research.
Those who settle in advanced countries go there first as students to pursue courses of scientific, technological or academic nature not available in their own countries.
Most of the advanced courses that they take up there are designed to meet the demands of the country of their adoption but have little market value in their own country.
So they prefer to settle abroad where their work is recognized instead of coming back to their motherland and rotting for ever. Only a few returns who have the ability to apply their skill learnt abroad, to the conditions at home.
Under-developed countries like India which are at the transitional stage only, are worst sufferers from the brain-drain. They badly need the rare talents and intellectual achievements of their sons and daughters. No doubt, these brainy people have a much brighter future in advanced foreign countries. But should they forget their duty to their motherland?
Our intellectuals may not go abroad to seek a satisfying professional career if their homeland can afford to provide them with a career suited to their genius. After all, mental satisfaction is a great thing.
Sad though it may be, it is nevertheless a fact that the conditions prevailing in India for higher research and technology are uncongenial for men of genius. So they prefer to migrate to other countries where they can work freely in a congenial atmosphere and have professional satisfaction and where their merits are fully recognised and duly rewarded. India should try to attract back her intellectuals and geniuses by offering them greater facilities and better emoluments.
