Chandigarh University Becomes First University to Offer Support to Indian Youth Repatriated from US with Launch of Rehabilitation Program 'Udaan'

Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu Announces Launch of ‘Udaan’ Helpline & Portal to Help Indian Youth Repatriated from US in Rebuilding Their Futures with Skill Training, Reskilling, Education, Employment & Entrepreneurship 

Chandigarh University has become the first Indian university to come forward for helping Indian youth repatriated from US with Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and Chandigarh University Chancellor Satnam Singh Sandhu announcing the launch of a rehabilitation programme ‘Udaan’ for offering free of cost counselling, career mapping, higher education opportunities, skill development and reskilling courses and suitable employment opportunities to such youth in local industries.

Addressing a Press Conference, the Rajya Sabha MP said the Chandigarh University has launched a helpline number (+91 98759 70027) and website www.cuchd.in/udaan-2025/ for extending all the help required to the repatriated youth. 

“The repatriated youth can reach out Chandigarh University with the help of the helpline number and registrations through the dedicated website for this rehabilitation programme ‘Udaan’. Under it, we will not only offer counselling to youth to help them to come out of the trauma resulting from the repatriation and understand their career aspirations for the future ahead, mapping will also be done to assess their skill levels so that we can provide them free of cost courses for their skilling and reskilling which will enhance their employability. If these youths want to go for higher education, Chandigarh University will also provide it free of cost at our campus. This apart, we will also work for providing suitable job opportunities to these repatriated youths in the industry at Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh,” Sandhu said. 

He said in the first phase, Chandigarh University’s rehabilitation programme will cover repatriated youth from Punjab which makes up for the biggest share of immigrants repatriated from US to India. Punjab residents total 126 (37.8 per cent) of the 333 people repatriated in US military aircraft, followed by 110 from neighbouring Haryana and 74 from Gujarat. The rest were from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Goa and one each from Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

 “Many of these individuals have been repatriated from the US recently left their homes with dreams of a better future but were repatriated due to immigration challenges. They have returned to India with shattered hopes, financial distress, and psychological trauma. Families of many repatriated youths are now in deep financial trouble, as they had borrowed large sums of money to send their loved ones abroad. With their dreams shattered, they now struggle to repay the debts. So it’s our collective responsibility to ensure their proper rehabilitation and reintegration into society. So under Udaan programme, Chandigarh University will provide all the help for rehabilitation’ of these repatriated youths most of whom are children of very ordinary families,” Sandhu said.

Elaborating details, the Rajya Sabha MP, who hails from Punjab, said under this ‘rehabilitation programme’, Chandigarh University will provide counselling by professionals to the youths repatriated from the US recently. 

“We will assess the skill levels of these repatriated youths in order to prepare a future career roadmap for their rehabilitation under the Udaan. If a repatriated youth requires further education or reskilling for a good future, the Chandigarh University will offer higher education opportunities to such individuals with special short term job-oriented courses free of cost. If required, Chandigarh University will design special skill training or reskilling courses for such persons so that they get increased employment opportunities in near future. We will also collaborate with the local industry in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh for finding employment opportunities for repatriated youths close to their native places. We will also connect these youths with suitable job opportunities in the private sector through Rozgar Melas,” Sandhu said.

The Member of Parliament said, “If the repatriated youth intends to embark on your entrepreneurial journey, Chandigarh University will provide them comprehensive support by providing them basic entrepreneurship development course for equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to create and manage a successful venture. Besides educating them about the key elements of entrepreneurship such as risk awareness, marketing strategies and basic registrations through Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at Chandigarh University which nurtures entrepreneurship skills, create self-employment, product development and manufacturing, Chandigarh University will also provide them all the information about all the government schemes and subsidies to empower them to start their own ventures,”.