In Solidarity with the Academic Community Affected by Covid-19 in India
InSAF India members share the grief of the people of India as they live through the apocalyptic situation that the country is going through.
We condemn the political dispensation that propagated the myth that India had beaten the pandemic when it was being warned by scientific committees that a second wave was coming, and which continues to abdicate from its responsibilities towards its citizenry.
We also condemn the lack of action by authorities across educational institutions to ensure the holistic wellbeing of staff and students by their singular focus on using the pandemic as a time to promote online learning as the way to go forward. Election polling duty has cost over 700 public sector teachers their lives in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
We stand with all citizens in their efforts to coordinate community support and medical relief efforts. We stand in solidarity with all contract teachers, child care (Anganwadi) workers, ad-hoc staff and students in precarious situations, in primary, secondary and higher education.
We stand with all the political prisoners who are exposed to the virus and demand that they be released immediately and ensured adequate medical treatment.
We call upon the authorities to take heed of scientific advice that addresses the urgent needs of the day instead of promoting pseudo-scientific measures in the name of traditional medicine.
We share Professor Apoorvanand’s words of despair published in Scroll.in on 7 May 2021: Indian universities are pretending everything is normal as the world around them is collapsing
