Even as almost 80% of students have returned to the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Bhopal campus, after a temporary closure, cases of jaundice and hepatitis continue to be reported among hostel residents, raising fresh concerns over student safety and campus preparedness in Madhya Pradesh.
At VIT Bhopal more than 3,000 students protested on the campus in Sehore district on the night of November 25, after at least 33 students fell ill with jaundice, allegedly due to poor-quality food and water. The immediate trigger for the unrest was an alleged incident involving a hostel warden hitting a student, which is currently under internal inquiry. Student statements, however, indicate that the protests weren’t merely a reaction to these recent incidents; they allege issues such as water scarcity, compressed semesters, improper infrastructure, and more have been persistent the past few years.
New cases emerging
According to students and parents, eight to nine hostelers have recently been diagnosed with jaundice-related symptoms. Some students who had no option to return home were forced to stay back on campus during the outbreak and reportedly fell ill with severe stomach infections. Student groups claim that new cases are still emerging every week, though there is no consolidated data as affected students are seeking treatment from different hospitals and private practitioners.
“Both my roommates are currently infected. On December 26 another friend was detected with jaundice inside the campus. We don’t get tickets to go home every time. So we chose to stay back and study,” said a hosteller who chose to stay at the campus during the outbreak.
He further informed, “To avail medical help, we are referred to Siddharth Hospital at Ashta which is 15-km from our campus or Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal City that is about 60-km from VIT. There is no proper medical facility inside the campus. Some students also prefer to visit nearest Government facility that is 50-km from campus.”
Health officials acknowledge
Medical experts from Ashta have clarified that many of the reported cases are not jaundice alone but viral hepatitis, a far more serious condition that spreads through contaminated food and water. A government hospital doctor explained, “Hepa is liver and ‘itis’ means inflammation. So hepatitis is basically liver inflammation. Jaundice is a symptom of the same. The patients who visited me had liver infection that led to more production of bile, which got accumulated in their body. Hepatitis is the cause of jaundice in such cases.”
“Last year, we noticed a surge in jaundice cases compared to the previous year. Over 2,838 cases were reported in government hospitals in 2025 alone, and many more are treated in private facilities,” said a microbiologist from the District government hospital in Sehore. He also informed, “Hepatitis infections can persist in the body for several months and require strict monitoring and hygiene control.”
Health officials in Sehore district have acknowledged the issue. Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr. Sudhir Kumar Deharia confirmed that cases linked to E. coli contamination in drinking water were reported not only from the VIT campus but also from nearby areas. E.coli was causing diarrhea and that’s was in large scale. That’s how students started visiting doctors and found they had jaundice and viral hepatitis. Earlier, the Public Health Engineering Department detected E. coli bacteria in four out of 18 water samples collected from different locations on the campus.
Importantly, the cases reported from the Ashta and Kotri areas were not jaundice but viral hepatitis. According to medical data prepared by Directorate of Health, Madhya Pradesh, about 1,248 acute hepatitis cases were reported last year.
Institute says campus is safe
Despite the concerns, VIT Bhopal has maintained that it is prepared to accommodate returning students. According to students, the administration claims that mineral water is being supplied and that water purifiers and ozonisers have been installed across hostels, common areas, and canteens. Parents have also been allowed to visit the campus to inspect facilities. However, students contest these claims. “The management says ozonisers have been installed, but we haven’t seen any so far,” said a student.
Speaking about post-outbreak arrangements by the university, the student said, “Three to four buses have been arranged to ferry us from the hostel to the main gate. It is about two to three kilometers of distance. The water coolers have been replaced because they were vandalised. New geysers have been installed for winters. We are now being provided purified packaged drinking water bottles.”
While nearly 80 per cent of students reportedly returned to hostels on the first day of reopening, parents continue to raise concerns over inadequate medical infrastructure. “The nearest doctor is located in Ashta, and the closest major hospital is nearly 62 kilometres away on the Bhopal–Indore highway,” noted one parent of first year student who is reluctant to send her child to college. Another parent said, “We too had faced several such problems. Students cannot refuse to go to college for this reason. They must fight and bring some solution.”
Although authorities have assured families that monitoring is ongoing, parents and student groups are demanding sustained water-quality checks, improved on-campus healthcare, and transparent health reporting to prevent a recurrence of the outbreak.
We reached out to VIT Bhopal for an official response, but the institute refused to comment.
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Published – January 08, 2026 03:22 pm IST
