Expedite vaccination to students for early return to campus, urge IITs to Education Ministry

The request comes at a time when the state governments are unable to procure enough vaccines for all the people who belong to the 18-44 age group.

With the vaccination drive open to everyone above the age of 18 years, the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) have been wanting their students to get vaccinated against the novel Coronavirus. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ held a meeting on Thursday, where the officials of the institutes requested the government for inoculation of all their students, so that they can safely return to their respective campuses, noted an IE report. Citing some sources, the report said that the administration of top-engineering colleges has urged the government to step in.

The request comes at a time when the state governments are unable to procure enough vaccines for all the people who belong to the 18-44 age group. If the central government steps in, it is expected that many IITs that still have students living on their campuses can receive vaccination.

An IIT-Delhi internal survey was conducted in April this year where 3,910 students were considered for findings. The survey results showed that almost 22 per cent of the students had tested positive for Covid-19 during the March- April period this year whereas 61 per cent saw at least one family member testing positive for the deadly viral infection. Keeping the survey results in view, the authorities of IIT-Delhi had relaxed norms which included flexibility in attendance as well as work-related deadlines.

Last month, 60 students were found positive for the virus in the IIT-Roorkee which led to sealing five hostels. Similarly IIT-Jodhpur witnessed 65 positive cases among students, due to which, G 3 block of the campus was declared as a containment zone. During the same month, IIT-Bhubaneswar reported 10 cases. A major outbreak was seen in IIT-Madras last year in December where 71 cases of Covid-19 surfaced, of whom 66 were students.

During the meeting of IITs, IISc, NITs, and IISERs along with the Education Ministry, the number of rising Covid-19 cases among students were discussed along with online classes as well as the implementation of the new National Education Policy.