NEW DELHI: As the Taliban shut women out of higher education in Afghanistan, more Afghan women than ever are enrolling in Indian scholarship programmes online.
Data accessed from Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) shows India shifted its flagship Afghanistan scholarship programme to a fully digital mode after the 2021 Taliban takeover, retaining all 1,000 seats annually even as physical student mobility collapsed.
Afghan students earlier came to India physically under the Special Scholarship Scheme for Afghan Nationals (SSSAN). But from 2023-24 onwards, the programme was shifted to an online-only format through the e-VidyaBharti Network Project (iLearn portal).
The transition followed the Taliban’s return to Kabul in Aug 2021, after which India stopped issuing new visas to Afghans. Thousands of Afghan students who had returned home during Covid-19 were unable to come back to India because of travel restrictions and visa disruptions.
Yet the scholarship numbers did not fall.
ICCR awarded 1,000 Afghan scholarships each in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26, with all seats filled every year. Before the Taliban takeover, the numbers had fluctuated between 730 and 983 annually, with 983 scholarships awarded in 2016-17, 898 in 2017-18, 616 in 2018-19, 756 in 2019-20 and 730 in 2020-21.
The data suggests India preserved its educational outreach to Afghanistan by digitising it. But in the process, the nature of access changed fundamentally — from students physically studying in Indian universities to remote learning-based engagement.
The biggest shift appears among women students. Female participation under the scheme stood at 125 in 2016-17, 137 in 2017-18, 49 in 2018-19, 95 in 2019-20 and 145 in 2020-21. The numbers remained modest in the immediate post-Taliban years at 117 in 2021-22 and 139 in 2022-23.
But after the move to online education, female participation rose sharply to 300 in 2023-24, remained at 278 in 2024-25 and jumped to 511 in 2025-26.
For the first time, women outnumbered men under the programme, with 511 women enrolled against 489 men in 2025-26.
The rise is significant given that girls in Afghanistan are currently barred from studying beyond Class VI, while women have been banned from universities since Dec 2022, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where women are effectively shut out of higher education. According to UNESCO, nearly 2.2 million girls are now barred from attending school beyond the primary level due to this regressive decision.
The data also points to another major shift: while scholarships for Afghans continue on paper, physical mobility of students have reduced sharply. There are currently 365 Afghans enrolled under various ICCR-linked programmes in Indian universities. But of them, 361 are PhD scholars, only four are undergraduate students and none are postgraduate students — suggesting that most Afghan students physically present in India are possibly research scholars from older batches rather than fresh entrants.
India continues to maintain a sizeable educational footprint across other conflict-affected countries. Sudan currently has 199 ICCR scholars in India, Iraq 167, Yemen 165, Syria 147, South Sudan 107 and Palestine 53.
Much of the international student presence is concentrated in Delhi’s universities, particularly DU, which remains one of the largest hubs for ICCR scholars in the country. According to officials, DU alone currently hosts over 700 ICCR scholars from countries across Asia and Africa.
The numbers also point to a wider shift in India’s scholarship diplomacy. Bangladesh has emerged as the single largest beneficiary country under ICCR schemes with 1,619 students currently studying in India — far ahead of Nepal (460), Sri Lanka (371) and Afghanistan (365).
ICCR currently offers 500 slots exclusively for Bangladeshi nationals under the Suborno Jayanti Scholarship Scheme, underlining India’s growing focus on neighbourhood and regional educational diplomacy.
The broader distribution of scholarships also reflects India’s increasing focus on the Global South. Countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam and Mozambique dominate ICCR enrolments, while Western countries barely feature.
At the same time, ICCR’s outreach is expanding beyond conventional university education into Ayurveda, yoga, agriculture and other specialised institutions — reflecting India’s attempt to use education and traditional knowledge systems as instruments of soft power.
Overall, the utilisation of ICCR scholarships has risen from 3,121 in 2023-24 to 3,558 in 2024-25 and 3,648 in 2025-26. However, the numbers include the 1,000 online Afghan scholarships introduced after the Taliban takeover.
That means part of the apparent growth in scholarship utilisation reflects digital enrolments rather than an increase in the number of foreign students physically studying in India — highlighting how India’s scholarship diplomacy in conflict zones is evolving, not shrinking.
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