Tamil Nadu Univs to study impact of COVID-19 and H1N1 in villages

Chennai

A senior official from the Higher Education Department, quoting the UGC directive, said though the current focus in the fight against the pandemic is to contain the increasing number of cases, a vital cause of concern has been protecting the village community. “Importantly, there is a pressing need to sensitively analyse the impact of the pandemic, as well as the role, played by communities in agrarian parts of the country,” he said adding “thus, to effectively address this need, the vice-chancellors of universities and principals of their affiliated colleges will facilitate the study of five to six villages adjoining their institution or adopted by them.”

He said the focus of the study includes finding out the awareness levels in the village regarding COVID-19, how the village withstands various challenges posed by the pandemic situation, and what are the best strategies adopted by the people there to combat the challenges posed by the virus. “Also, the higher education institutions will facilitate a parallel study on the impact of 1918 pandemic (H1N1 virus),” he said adding the issues will focus on how the country handled the 1918 pandemic and what measures the country took to boost the economy after the pandemic.

Accordingly, the universities and its affiliated colleges will constitute a dedicated research team and present the study report on the university monitoring portal, developed by the UGC.

The research team of the institutions will make sure that the facilitation of the study strictly adheres to the guidelines issued by the Centre and Tamil Nadu government in respect of COVID-19.