October 23, 2015
IIT-Madras may have "toned down" an article written by a suicide survivor in the IIT Madras' official student journal, the New Indian Express reported. However, in 'It Is Always Darkest Before Dawn', published in the institute's official student journal The Fifth Estate, speaks about an anonymous suicide survivor's experiences.
The New Indian Express reported that the article was taken down after “concerns from several quarters."
“It Is Always Darkest Before Dawn”
The narrator speaks about how he attempts to commit suicide, before seeking professional help. The magazine's Executive Editor, Raghavi Rao Kodati told the New Indian Express: “We usually run articles through our faculty guide. This was not done in this case initially. When it was published, we received a suggestion from our advisor saying this might not be the best time to run it. On second thought, we too agreed and took it down for two days. A few sentences in the article like ‘IIT is a hotbed of depression’, were felt to be a bit strong. There were a few others which we felt needed editing,” she explained.
However, IIT-Madras’ Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi told Express that the institute 's administration did not influence modifications in the article.
IIT-M's suicide problem
In the last 30 days, IIT-Madras has seen 2 suicides. B.Tech student Rahul G. Prasad was found hanging in his Ganga Hostel room just 4 days ago. On September 21, N Nagendra Kumar Reddy, another student committed suicide. In the last five years, the institute has seen 10 suicides.
