Last year, the country grappled with the devastating Covid-19 wave, forcing another and stricter lockdown, reducing public activities further. Despite this India saw several big protests over various issues, including protests over delayed exams, implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, fight to save the oldest women’s college in India, etc. As 2021 draws to an end, we have shortlisted some of these some of the protests that drew attention around the country in 2021.
Protest against NEP 2020
The new NEP 2020, which replaced the National Policy on Education framed in 1986, was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2020. Since then the policy that includes reforming the 3-year undergraduate studies structure, changing it into a 4-year pattern with multiple entries and exit points, has received a lot of criticism prompting several protests all across the country during the last several months.
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During these protests many raised their concerns in an online protest against the said decisions, saying that the restructuring in the study programmes will lead to “dilution of courses and degrees”. Teaming against NEP, the Federation of Central Universities Teachers Associations also said that NEP will do more bad than good. It said that the policy will reduce the role of teachers and worsen the relation between teachers and pupils.
Hyderabad Women’s College students protest
In July, several students were forced to come down on the streets to save the first women’s college, in Hyderabad, Kamala Nehru Polytechnic For Women (KNPW). The issue came to light after the college’s name was missing from the list of state’s polytechnic colleges ahead of the Polytechnic Common Entrance Test (Polycet-2021). When the news about shutting the college got attention, the Exhibition Society of Telangana, which is the governing body of the college, blamed the state government for not providing any funds for the government-aided technical education courses, resulting in the shutting down of these courses.
Till August 2021, several activists, student unions, came together demanding the state government to aid the college. Several students from Kamala Nehru Polytechnic College For Women also had organised a novel protest in front of the Telangana Assembly, seeking alms to raise money to save the institution. Amidst these many protests and campaigns, IT Minister KT Rama Rao then assured the students on August 5, 2021, that no courses would be discontinued at the college and that the government has agreed to aid the courses.
Delhi University students protest against online classes
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and its subsequent lockdown, scores of colleges and universities in the country have not resumed physical classes. Delhi University is one of them. For more than 21 months the university has not resumed physical classes, this has forced students to protest to reclaim their spaces.
Multiple student organisations on December 3, took out a march to press for the reopening of Delhi University campus and to mark one month of their protest against the continued closure of colleges, despite the Covid-19 case count remaining low in the capital for the past several months. Demanding the immediate reopening of Delhi University, protesting students burnt the effigy of vice-chancellor (V-C) Yogesh Singh and criticised him for avoiding a dialogue with students despite the month-long protest.
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The students are claiming that the environment of uncertainty is causing tremendous anxiety among students who have been confined at home and face enormous challenges due to limited resources.
Protest over NEET PG Counselling Delay
Lakhs of aspirants who have cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2021 are awaiting their counselling. The delay in the counselling subsequently has caused a delay in medical college admissions. This is affecting not just this years’ NEET PG aspirants but has also left the resident doctors in most government hospitals “burnt-out”.
The delay in the counselling has led to several protests across the country by resident doctors, doctors associations, and NEET aspirants. They are continuing to protest demanding the expedition of NEET-PG counselling 2021. In many parts of the country, doctors have also called for strikes, which has caused long queues of patients outside government-run hospitals, including those in Delhi.
Protests over school closure and resumption of physical classes
Soon after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, in 2020, schools were shut, in an attempt to contain the virus. Children were forced to stay at home for as many as 21 months. The duration of school closure differed in different parts of the country. In this regard, multiple protests were staged in the country. Initially, protests were stated as parents disagreed to send their children to go back to schools as they were scared of the COVID-19 virus, however, many parents on the other demanded that the physical classes should be resumed as the covid count has gone down in the country.
The tussle has been continuing as parents have mixed reactions over schools’ reopening. Arguing reopening of physical classes scores of parents argue that they have “learned to learn to live with Covid” and closure of physical classes is affecting the education of students. Meanwhile, some parents claim that with the threat of the new variant, the school remained closed for the safety of the children and their families.
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