Watch | UPSC Aspirants Continue Protests, Demand Re-Examination Due to COVID Crisis

The pandemic has struck everyone like a bolt from the blue. The situation of UPSC aspirants has been no different. When the exams were held in 2020 amid the second wave of COVID-19, many could not appear for them owing to multiple reasons. While some of the aspirants themselves were infected with the virus, others were busy tending to their family members who caught the virus. They had left cities to get back to their homes owing to lockdown and other restrictions, and the perpetual fear of catching the virus was in the air.

As a result, many such aspirants believe that the government must allow them to sit for the exams now. The situation of those aspirants whose was the last attempt at UPSC last year feel that they have been wronged by the government. All their hopes of becoming a civil servant have vanished.

Many such aspirants, from across the country, have been camping in Delhi in protest, appealing to the government to allow them an "extra attempt" besides relaxing upper age limits for exams considering the "once in a century crisis" necessitated by COVID-19.

The Wire's  Mukul Singh Chauhan is at the protest site to speak to the aspirants.

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