Emotional Engineering
What’s behind the suicides at IIT Kanpur?
Suicide Zone
- IIT-K has seen a student suicide every year in the last five years
- The latest incident was on November 17 when a girl student hanged herself to death
- Parents blame overstretched curriculum and grading system
- Faculty faults parents for putting pressure on children
- Late nights playing video games or surfing the net often leads to poor health, impacting academic performance
In our survey of professional colleges this year, the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur stood a proud second among the top ten government engineering institutes. IIT-K is ahead again, but this time for a rather dubious distinction: eight of its students have committed suicide in the last five years.
Just when the authorities were heaving a sigh of relief that 2010 had gone by without incident, 23-year-old Madhuri Sale, a final-year civil engineering student, hanged herself from the ceiling fan of her hostel room on November 17. It ended the first long spell the campus has had since the last suicide on Jan 3, 2009, in a spate that began in Nov 2005.
What explains it? Distraught parents tend to blame it all on the institute’s overstretched curriculum and complex grading system which starts telling on students. As S.L. Kureel, whose son Prashant Kumar, a 20-year-old second-year student, hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on Apr 18, 2008, does. “The institute needs to review its age-old grading system,” he says, “the fear of losing out on a year or failing in a paper compels them to take the extreme step.”
Posted in Lucknow as regional director of National Small Savings, Kureel is unwilling to pardon the IIT authorities for what he terms as institutional “callousness”. What continues to haunt him is the alleged refusal of institute director Sanjay Dhande to grant him an audience. “The director refused to spare me any time. He is also not open to any suggestions from parents who are the worst sufferers in the event of a suicide of their son or daughter,” says Kureel, who is still at a loss to understand why his bright and fun-loving son would end his life. “All the director did was to send me a routine letter of condolence when I was about to cremate my only son,” he recalls. Kureel’s plea to the Union HRD minister as well as the prime minister for a CBI probe also fell on deaf ears.
At A Loss: The grieving brother of Madhuri Sale, who ended her life on November 17. (Photograph by R. Shukla)
In Madhuri Sale’s case, however, faculty members and administration rule out academic pressure. “Madhuri was a good student and had scored a grade of 10 in her last exam,” says Prof Sanjay Mittal, dean of faculty affairs. “So there was no question of her not clearing the finals.” Madhuri’s mother had another explanation: “My child was discriminated against because of parochial considerations.” Madhuri’s family is from the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. Few, however, are willing to buy this charge as IIT-K is highly heterogeneous, drawing its 4,920 students and 360-odd faculty members from all parts of the country.
Nor does the institute lack in desired infrastructure for students who might need assistance—in academics or healthwise. “Any student falling short in his or her academic grades is automatically included in a separate group that receives special tutorial classes,” asserts Prof Partha Chakravarty, dean of student affairs. “Besides, of course, teachers are available 24x7 to all students.” In addition to the already well-laid-out counselling service, director Dhande has now expanded the base with three counsellors and two psychiatrists. There are also classes in yoga and art of living. Besides, the sports facilities in every hostel are excellent.
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Students too concede that the institute has a perfect support system. “I fail to see any reason for a student to commit suicide on account of the curriculum or academic system,” says a first-year student from Orissa. “One may have personal issues, but that can happen anywhere.” PhD student Chandrashekhar Sharma too expresses satisfaction with IIT-K’s support structure, but “one also has to come forward to avail of the facilities,” he says. Significantly, none of those who ended their lives in the past five years had ever visited the counselling centre. “That’s why we have now decided to include every student as part of a group which is supervised by a faculty member, who is expected to keep a tab on their overall behaviour. No sooner than any imbalance or disorder is detected, it will be brought to the notice of the counselling team, which will then move in to assist the student,” says senior counsellor Sharmistha Chakravarty. The counsellors also want parents to play a positive role in reducing stress levels of students.
For many believe overbearing parents add to the stress. Students admit that even after they get into IIT, parents keep up the pressure. “My mother calls me up at least thrice a week to know whether I am studying properly or not,” notes a second-year student. “My father expects me to maintain the high marks I used to get in school, without realising that the level of competition here is far higher,” complains a third-year student.
Which is why Dhande, who has been heading the institute for nine long years, firmly believes that “self-regulation” by students is a must. “Unlimited surfing on the internet and late-night indulgence in video games has to be curbed by students themselves. They are all mature young men and women; we would not like to impose anything on them. But they ought to understand that late nights take a toll on their health, thereby affecting their academic performance.”
On their part, IIT authorities are all set to come out with some concrete solutions. “A number of reforms have been mooted, but any final decision will be taken at a meeting of our senate,” Dhande discloses. “Our focus is on studying three levels of relationships—that between students and students, between students and teachers and between students and their families.” Once these concerns are addressed, our brightest students will no doubt also be the emotionally strongest ones.
