Study: Depression among youth high during lockdown

Study: Depression among youth high during lockdown

Sushil.Rao@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  02.08.2020

About 33% of youngsters in the age group of 16-20 were either depressed or stressed during the period from April 1 to May 12 when lockdown was strictly enforced. In a study ‘Psychosocial impact of Covid-19 lockdown on mental well-being among 11 states of India: A Markov model approach’, 22% of respondents had shown signs of depression, while anxiety was seen among 15% of respondents and stress in 10% of them. These findings were published in the ‘Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Disorders’ on July 29.

V Vishwak Reddy, assistant professor, department of psychiatry, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences, Narketpally, who was part of the group that conducted the study, said 27.5% of 891 respondents had exhibited either depression, anxiety or stress. “This is a very high percentage,” Dr Vishwak told STOI.

“Lack of experience in handling a crisis situation, excessive usage of social media as well as inherent restlessness induced by being house-bound can possibly contribute to the significant high rate of depression in the age group of 16-20 years,” the study said. A total of 891 people responded from 11 states across the country and 90% of them were from the five states in the south.

“Amid unprecedented health and socio-economic crisis emanating from the Covid-19 lockdown in India from March 25 and extending into its fourth phase is a matter of great concern to mental health professionals,” the study said, adding that the aim was to evaluate the psychological impact during the pandemic.

The study was done by consultant psychiatrist Satya Revanth Karri of Nalgonda, Tabitha Jezreel and Shadan Afeen, PG students, department of psychiatry, KIMS, and Praveen Khairkar, professor, department of psychiatry at KIMS.

‘Missing’ Mandarin adds to confusion at Sanchi varsity

NEW EDU POLICY

‘Missing’ Mandarin adds to confusion at Sanchi varsity

Ramendra.Singh@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:  02.08.2020

The ‘dropping’ of Mandarin from among the foreign languages in the new National Education Policy (NEP) announced two days ago, has led to confusion among students pursuing higher studies at the Sanchi University. The varsity offers a one-year diploma course and a short-term six-month certificate course in Chinese language.

The NEP approved by the Union cabinet does not mention ‘Chinese’ among the foreign languages for students at the secondary level.

The ‘Chinese’ language (rather than Mandarin or Cantonese) was mentioned in the draft released in 2019. It had named French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese as foreign languages which could be offered as electives.

Interestingly, the diploma and short-term course in Chinese language at Sanchi University were popular among the ITBP personnel. This could be gauged from the fact that 36 personnel were enrolled for the course.

A faculty at the university specialising in Mandarin wishing anonymity said, “it is early to comment whether Chinese language courses will exist or not at the higher education level in India. The policy as of now has dropped it at the secondary level. Nevertheless, it is a matter of concern for both students and teaching faculty.”

When contacted, university PRO, Vijay Dubey said, “The policy has just come and it is too early to comment at this stage. We will put the issue before the academic council and executive council if required.”

This University is meant to address the global issues and shall generally cover educationalists, academicians, philosophers, researchers, practitioners from all over the world, but primarily focuses on Asian countries - the land of genesis and spread of Buddhist-Indic culture. All aspects of Buddhist-Indic Studies from philosophy to culture, from economics to governance are addressed in totality.

3 asst profs who ‘blew whistle’ get termination orders

3 asst profs who ‘blew whistle’ get termination orders

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Patiala:  02.08.2020

The three professors of Government Mohindra College, who had, last year, blown the whistle on the misappropriation of the college funds by the authorities, have been issued termination orders for ‘interacting with the media’.

Last year, three assistant professors of the college — Amarinder Singh Tiwana, Mandeep Singh and Jashandeep — had filed a complaint with the state vigilance bureau and higher officials of the state education department alleging that former principal of the college had violated the rules and engaged in misappropriation of funds worth several crores of rupees. The complaint entailed a vigilance probe, which has not been completed till date.

However, on July 29, the board of governors, headed by college principal Prof Simrat Kaur, ordered termination of the services of the three assistant professors, who had been appointed in the college on contractual basis. The reason mentioned in the termination letter is, ‘instead of resolving the issues through mutual interaction, the three assistant professors went to the media.’ As the vigilance probe was heading nowhere, the three assistant professors in February had held a press conference at Chandigarh alleging ‘lack of professionalism in the inquiry’. The professors had claimed that they had written to the principal secretary (higher education), superintendent of police (vigilance), the director public instructions and the college principal. Even as two separate inquiries — one by the vigilance and the other by the secretary higher education had been ordered — both the authorities continued to drag their feet over the issue.

In their complaint last year, the three had stated that the college authorities had indulged in large scale misappropriation of funds of RUSA, the parent-teacher association (PTA) and the Higher Education Institute Society, a self-finance society of the college.

While the state government had held back the retirement benefits of the former principal of the college, but till now no further action has been taken into the complaint filed by them.

Principal Kaur said, “The decision to terminate the services of three assistant professors has been taken by the board of governors.” When asked if the board was being headed by her, she refused to take any further questions and switched off her mobile phone. The assistant professors have now alleged that they were repeatedly called to the principal’s office and asked to withdraw the complaint.

Last year, Amarinder Singh Tiwana, Mandeep Singh and Jashandeep had claimed said that former principal has misused funds

Nurses protest to seek better benefits

Nurses protest to seek better benefits

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:  02.08.2020

Nursing employees from various institutions that come under the medical education department held a protest at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital on Saturday, demanding better pay and benefits.

Clad in PPE suits, they sought a 50 per cent hike in basic salary, government insurance and cover under the Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme. They also said that they should be brought under the New Pension Scheme.

“We are frontline workers in a pandemic. The government should treat us like government employees by providing better pay and insurance cover,” said a nurse at the demonstration.

The employees wore black armbands as a mark of protest. “We have been pleading for basic socioeconomic demands for the past five years, but the government has been turning a blind eye to our problems. We will continue to wear black armbands till our demands are fulfilled,” said another nurse.

She added: “The government must bring us under the New Pension Scheme and treat us with some dignity as we have been working tirelessly during the pandemic.”

Nurses said though they and their family members were more vulnerable to Covid-19, the government had not offered any assurance on proper treatment. They claimed many staff members on Covid-19 duty contracted the virus but didn’t get access to good healthcare facilities.

FRONTLINE ANGER: Staffers protest at Bowring & Lady Curzon Hospital

Kuwait bans flights to India among 31 ‘high risk’ nations

Kuwait bans flights to India among 31 ‘high risk’ nations

toi Vadodara

02.08.2020

New Delhi: Kuwait on Saturday banned commercial flights to 31 “high risk” countries — including India, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong and China — till further notice to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Indian aviation authorities had on Friday said that recently a “transport bubble agreement had been signed with Kuwait to uplift stranded passenger both to/from India”. After the Kuwaiti move, officials said this special travel arrangement could now be affected. TNN

Disastrous start to MSU’s mock exam

Disastrous start to MSU’s mock exam

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Vadodara:  02.08.2020

M S University’s first attempt to conduct online examination turned into a mockery of sorts on Saturday.

The university had developed its own exam portal for holding the exams for which the first mock test was scheduled on Saturday morning. But as thousands of students tried to access the exam portal, they received message of ‘server error’, ‘service unavailable’ among others, as the portal crashed within minutes.

MSU was the first publicly funded university of Gujarat to make such an attempt.

Ahead of the mock test, getting user id and password had also become an ordeal for students, who had kept waiting for the details till last moment. On Saturday, when they tried to access the portal, most of them could simply not login. Those who logged in face hurdles of low speed and other technical errors.

Officials said that of the nearly 4,000 students who were supposed to appear for the exams, more than 3,000 students could not login.

The university officials termed it as a cyber attack by unidentified outside ‘agencies and hackers’.

“Since Friday evening, some professional agencies and hackers were trying to damage and hack our portal. There were many technical hitches that students faced today,” said K M Chudasama, officiating registrar of MSU, adding that the university will register a FIR with cyber crime.

“ We will make the server strong and secure after which the new dates of mock test and semester-end exams will be declared. Both exams are postponed till then,” he said.

While the mock tests were scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, the semester-end exams in which over 17,000 students were to be appear, were scheduled from August 5 onwards.

Student union leaders stage protest against the VC on Saturday

Wife, relatives murder man over sexual torture

Wife, relatives murder man over sexual torture

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:02.08.2020

Unable to tolerate sexual torture, a school teacher murdered her engineer husband with help from her relatives on Friday.

The deceased was identified as E Sundar alias Sudeer, 34, from Mayandi Street in Thirumangalam. He got married to S Arivuselvam, 31, a government teacher, eight years ago. The couple have a daughter.

Early on Friday morning, Arivulselvam rushed Sundar to a hospital, claiming that he became unconscious after falling off from a bed. Doctors declared him brought dead.

A police team from the Thirumangalam police station conducted an inquiry and noticed injuries on his private parts, raising suspicion. Arivuselvam was picked up by the police for an inquiry. During interrogation, she admitted that she along with her relative B Balamani, 43, and her son B Sumaiyar, 26, had murdered Suresh. In her statement, she stated that Sundar, an alcoholic, often forced himself upon her. When she denied sex, she was beaten up.

On Thursday night, she mixed sleeping pills in the milk he drank. After sometime when he fell asleep, she asked Balamani and Sumaiyar to come in and the trio suffocated him with a plastic bag.

When Sundar tried to get away, Sumaiyar attacked him and injured his private parts, resulting in his death.

Based on a complaint from Sundar’s uncle A Somasundaram, 63, a case was registered under the CrPc Section 174 (suspicious death) and a detailed inquiry was conducted.