FPJ Ed: Students bemoan COVID-19 situation at IIM Calcutta as authorities refute claims

IIM Calcutta, considered one of the best B schools in Asia, recently witnessed a surge of Covid cases on the campus. The situation has worried some students as the institution has decided to go back to online classes and instructed students to go back to their hometowns, if they are not under the containment zones, as per their convenience.

"There is no official notification that makes it compulsory for students to leave the campus but we have been told that if the cases increase and conditions worsen, we would be asked to leave", claimed one student who wished to remain anonymous. "There are many students, especially in the second year, who are not willing to get tested because they want to make the most out of their campus life in the last few months", the student added.

Some students were let down by the quarantine process as they believe when IIM-C was witnessing positive cases in December, some students didn't adhere to the quarantine rules and they were not enforced strictly. "The quarantine process was a bit disappointing at first when there were fewer cases on the campus as no proper checks on the same were initiated but at the same time it's the responsibility of the students to follow the Covid protocols no matter what," asserted another student.

As IIM-C has around or more than 100 cases of Covid on the campus currently, students have said that new year celebrations and unofficial parties might have driven the surge rather than them venturing out during Christmas as reported earlier.

"When some 20 cases were reported in December, the student council requested the admin to conduct examinations online but to no avail as students did attend offline lectures without any problems but were worried about Covid only when exams came into the picture", said one student while claiming that many from the batch didn't give their term examinations offline citing Covid and might face repercussions for the same. The students who have left are not expecting to be back until June after they complete their summer internships.

Tata Halls, Ramanujan Hostel, Lake View Hostel, and New Hostel have been considered containment zones as instructed by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. "We are monitoring cases daily and have tie-ups with diagnostic labs for testing and other facilities. We have also been following quarantine rules as mandated by the municipal corporation," said Manish Thakur, chairperson of the Covid task force and dean (new initiatives and external relations) at IIM-C . When asked about students on the campus, Mr.Thakur assured that apart from classes, term 3 and 6 examinations will also be conducted online as they will be done by March.

"Since infrastructure in the institute and city is not such that it will be able to cater all the students who have been infected with Covid, if condition worsens, we advised them to leave for their hometowns."

While refuting some of the things alleged by the students, Mr.Thakur maintained that the quarantining process has always been strictly enforced and he "doesn't believe" it to be true that students found it lackluster as individuals are always supervised by the resident doctor and only discharged when they are cured of the infection. "Some students are using Covid as an excuse to skip examinations, which is not acceptable", added Mr.Thakur.