How students are fighting lockdown. Image source: instagram.com/stcunion2019
“Hum honge kamyaab, Corona ke khilaaf” is a catchy video message on YouTube created by students and teachers of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The inspirational video is an effort to remind people that we are all jointly fighting the pandemic and will overcome this together, the registrar office of the varsity told indianexpress.com.
Jamia is among the many Indian institutes to have taken it upon themselves to motivate students, teachers and other members of the society. As the lockdown period gets extended without much respite in the number of coronavirus cases, maintaining a sound mental and physical health is a huge task and institutes are here to help.
A college in Kerala, St Teresa, has started a social media campaign to help students fighting lockdown blues, by encouraging them to look at the positive side of things. The campaign ‘Covid Kurippukal’ began on April 14 with a message from Health Minister KK Shylaja. According to project coordinator J Poornendu, “The idea behind the campaign is to spread positivity during lockdown. Till now, we have received over a thousand stories through WhatsApp and Instagram handles.”
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“Members of the college union and students of youth platform Under 25, look for videos that have been circulated and share the best over social media. The campaign will continue till lockdown ends,” the coordinator informed.
Recently, Delhi University organised a seminar on Mental Health Aspects of Covid Pandemic. The Department of Social Work, which co-ordinated the programme mentioned, “The webinar focused on ‘Mental health and well-being during the covid pandemic’, and talked about various means to come out from depression – yoga to music/ painting, other co-curricular activities.” “The webinar stressed on performing yoga and dhyaan to keep the mind free from depression during lockdown,” the department stated.
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The students of Jadavpur University also started a community radio in mid-April called ‘Dukho Volo’ in Garia to broadcast yoga lessons, poems, songs and plays on weekends for residents of the area.
Soham Mistry, who is associated with this community radio said, “The sole aim of the project is to give relief to students, professionals and the elderly through various programmes. We have a special morning programme ‘Class Sahay’ on Saturday and Sunday dedicated to students from 8 to 9 am, which is followed by other programmes till 3 pm.”
The 21-year-old said, “As the digital mode hardly has any original content, we shifted our focus to community radio. We started in mid-April and plan to continue it post-lockdown.” The students are also a part of Kolkata Police’s campaign “Street drawing highlighting the dangers of Covid-19 virus attack.”
Another educational body, Great Lakes Institute of Management, has recently come up with ‘Choir of optimism’ that features students, faculty members and independent musicians. They performed on legendary artist Michael Jackson’s number ‘Heal the World’.
Get social
Like other social media platforms, Instagram, Pinterest are also flooded with creative thoughts, motivational speeches shared by students and teachers.
Meanwhile, Lockdown Learning, an Instagram page created to motivate students during lockdown is run by three primary teachers of United Kingdom – Sophie Fenton, Danielle Churney, and Jemma Levy – and features specific sections on Toddler games, Ideas in act, Messages to you, among others.
In the section, Messages to you, co-founder Danielle Churney mentioned the idea behind the page is to use minimal resources to reduce the barriers of learning.
Teachers are also posting motivational messages through Pinterest. Barkha Bahl, Director, Trinity Institute of Professional Studies shared her message to students through Pinterest.
“Dear Students, I trust you all are well and taking all the precautionary measures to fight COVID-19. At this time when the whole world is fighting the pandemic, I would like to convey my message that, under all circumstances we should adhere the guidelines and advisories,” the excerpt from the Director’s statement shared on Pinterest.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is conducting live fitness sessions for school children. The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is also conducting live lessons on yoga and meditation to boost students’ immunity amid lockdown. These live lessons are in collaboration with Fit India Mission and are available on YouTube.