College students in the city believe that getting projects made professionally isn’t cheating, but just a jugaad that some of them willingly pay for from their pocket money. Most of them admit to copying or “improvising” on a friend’s project in the past when submission deadlines loomed large, but at the same time they are also surprised at the news emanating from Down Under about Australian schoolkids outsourcing their essays from India for a pittance.
Be it schools or colleges, students in the capital have either opted for or are aware of a friend who has purchased a “bound project” from shops that sell these in and around campuses. Nishant Chaturvedi, student of IP University, avers, “A friend of mine had gotten his B.Tech project made from a guy who advertised on the Web. They have some commonly submitted projects and you can buy printouts of projects (circuit diagrams and software programs). All you have to do is get it bound with your name on it.”
Amit K., proprietor of a coaching institute in the city, seconds this, “Project-making setups come up in and around March (in the weeks before submissions). A popular haunt for students is the alley behind a well-known college in South Delhi where there are professionally run centers that make projects for both school and college students. They are well aware of the curriculum that is in the modules and even prepare these in advance.”
Prominent websites that undertake projects and research support for scholars from abroad, think getting homework done by professionals would be difficult for school students to afford. Puneet Chaddha of Dissertation India, a Delhi-based firm that undertakes projects and thesis work, says, “We get research work from students from abroad, but we certainly aren’t a ‘homework company’.”
Students from abroad come calling and they provide research support service for PhD and research students, edit their stuff and provide statistics. He adds, “These are niche services which come at a premium and are certainly not cheap.”
However, he pinpoints various setups in Noida and around NCR that take up school projects and homework from abroad. Freelancers, who generally are college students, operate from multiple Websites taking up essay-writing projects, thesis work and ghost writing dissertation work of students from abroad. Youngsters though think little of the idea of outsourcing homework. Rishabh Kumar, student of DAV Public School, sums it up, “Computer projects and circuit diagrams for Physics experiments can easily be found on the Internet. And we take help from teachers when we get stuck with Science projects. Whoever gets their homework done by others must be really lazy.”
Some names have been changed on request