COVID-19 and natural disaster have provided new opportunities for the higher academic institutions of India to demonstrate their social relevance and potential for outreach beyond purely academic activities. Let us have some glimpses.
As part of negotiating the pandemic threat St. Xavier’s College (SXC), Mumbai, has provided its auditorium hall, canteen and the Xavier Institute of Management and Research terrace to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to set up a 160-bed quarantine centre for fourteen day- isolation. The college has started a helpline number with six professional counsellors, twenty three faculty and six Jesuits. The purpose is to guide the students who are stuck at home, confused about the dates of semester examinations and admission. The college has sent around Rs. 1,75,000 worth of medical equipment through Urja Foundation to Kasturba Hospital to fight against COVID-19. SXC sent around 1000 food bags to Mumbai Dharavi, adequate for a family of five for ten days. Rs. 1 lakh worth of plastic face visors have been sponsored by SXC for the police. The college also sent Rs. 30,000 to Maharashtra Prabhodhan Seva Mandal, Nashik, for aid work with migrants.
IIT Delhi incidentally was the first higher education institution to receive approval from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for a polymerase chain reaction for COVID-19. It is issuing non-exclusive licenses to half-dozen companies. There are more than 200 projects issued by the IIT. One of the projects is Project Isaac, which encourages students to research on COVID-19 or open start-ups and much more.
Super cyclone Amphan, with its 135 km/hr strong wind, played havoc in the southern parts of West Bengal. It destroyed over hundred homes in South 24-Parganas district. Former students of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, gathered fund to repair houses of the villagers. The houses belong to the students of the Raghabpur campus of the college, who are from the marginalised rural section of the society. The strong wind blew away the roofs of the houses and fell thousand of giant trees which crashed on lot of houses. The college campus gave shelter to many families before the cyclone struck on 20 May, as a precautionary measure. A project called ‘Gift a Roof’ has been started by the volunteers of St. Xavier’s College Alumni Association, which conducted a door-to-door survey to detect the damage caused. More than Rs. 8 lakh has been given to the affected families of students to repair the homes by sending money directly to their bank accounts. The villagers were also provided with safe drinking water immediately after the super cyclone.
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, has constituted a committee to try and preserve a few out of 181 trees uprooted by the Super cyclone Amphan. The giant trees like banyan, peepal, mahogany and many more were ripped apart and blocked the concrete driveways in the 58-acre campus. The committee has the representatives of National Medicinal Plant Board and teachers of the campus, who have joined hands to try to revive some fallen trees without disposing them. The committee has straightened eighteen trees with the help of a chain pulley. The surviving trees are given fungicides to the roots to kill the infection. The roots of fallen trees will receive hormone treatment to stay alive. The members are building up stacking which is required to support the repaired trees with external props.
The few instances reveal that higher academic institutions during the crisis times are involving themselves directly in facilitating the struggle of survival of the vulnerable sections of the society and also in saving environment. Such activities contribute much more to their societal presence and goes on to increase their credibility.
Eduindex News 