Indore: The move comes following a letter by University Grants Commission (UGC) for the same.
In a letter addressed to vice chancellors of universities and principals of colleges, UGC secretary Rajnish Jain said that the current focus in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is to contain the increasing number of cases and to avoid further escalation of situations.
“However, the pivotal task in this fight has also been protecting the village community of the nation which hosts millions of habitants in lakhs of villages across the nation,” he added.
The UGC said that there is a pressing need to sensitively analyse the impact of pandemic as well as the role played by communities in agrarian part of this country.
The higher education regulator stated that in order to effectively address this need, the vice chancellors of universities and principals of their affiliated colleges should facilitate the study of 5-6 villages adjoining their institution/adopted by them.
The focus of the study, the UGC said, should be to elaborate on level of awareness in villages regarding Covid-19, how did the village withstand various challenges posed by pandemic and the best strategies or measures adopted by the village to combat the challenges posed by deadly virus.
In addition, the UGC stated that the higher education institutions should also facilitate a parallel study on impact of 1918 Pandemic (H1N1 Virus) or Spanish Flu on India elaborating on how the country handled it, and what measures India took to boost the Indian economy after the pandemic.
The UGC has directed higher education institutions to constitute a dedicated research team and submit the study report on the University Activity Monitoring Portal of UGC latest by June 30.
DAVV media incharge Chandan Gupta stated that they would soon start study on the neighbouring villages and submit the report to UGC withing the prescribed time limit.
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