For the past three days, around 20 students of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication have been protesting at the institute's Delhi campus, asking the authorities to reopen the government-run media institute. This is amid the second wave of COVID and the skyrocketing number of Coronavirus infections in the country.
IIMC offers year-long diploma courses in mass communication and journalism and the protestors, who belong to the 2020-21 batch have not attended even a single physical lecture. This, they say, is affecting the quality of their education. "We have only had online lectures until now. We find them really hard to follow. Throughout the first semester, we were taught only online. We do not want that to happen in this semester," said Sourav Kumar, a protesting student. He added that the administration is yet to meet the students.
A lot of students are also boycotting their online classes now. "Even though the classes were conducted online, the fees were not reduced. We hope they adjust it with the second-semester fees," he says. The students also tell us that they have been sleeping on the IIMC campus for the past couple of nights. "The administration has now installed more CCTV cameras to keep a watch on us. They have in fact locked the campus, preventing access to toilets (in the main building) for the protestors," he says.
But why do the students want the campus to be reopened, when the COVID cases are rising again? Sourav says, "This doesn't stop the government from closing down public spaces, malls and movie halls. How can they then expect the cases to spread if a few students attend their classes following all SOPs?"
On Wednesday, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad had submitted a memorandum to the Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communication demanding to conduct offline Practical classes for the students of IIMC, specifically of RTV Journalism.
