Stress toll: In a month 50 students kill self in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana - TNN

Stress toll: In a month 50 students kill self in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

TNN | Oct 16, 2017, 09:19 IST

HYDERABAD: Students from the Telugu states might be at the top when it comes to securing IIT seats, but unfortunately , they are also leading the list when it comes to suicide.Since the beginning of the academic year, about 100 students have committed suicide. The number of student suicides in AP and Telangana has already reached 50 this month. 

While government is yet to respond on the issue, student organizations have given a bandh call in educational institutions on Monday . 

Activists blamed these suicides on the pressure to excel in studies and the absense of counsellors in colleges. Several educationalists blamed violent video games. 

"During 1995 to 2000, more than 1,400 students committed suicide and the government had formed a committee to look into reasons for these suicides. After thorough study, the committee recommended having counsellors in the colleges. But unfortunately, no college has implemented the recommendation and it's high time they do it as the current situ ation is more or less same," said P Madhusudhan Reddy, president, Government Inter Colleges Association. 

He further said as per the committee's recommendation, a criminal case should be booked against the college management. "These days, students spend a lot of time on mobile watching videos and playing games. Most of these games are violent and this in turn is making them violent, which is encouraging them to hurt themselves or someone else," said Amaranth V , an educationalist. 

Taking the recent case of an intermediate student leaving home due to academic pressure, child right activists said that criminal case should be booked against the educational institutions when a child commits suicide or harms himself.

Activists say the education department should act quickly as tens of students are committing suicide. City psychologists further said that forcing students to follow a `prison-like regime' will either make them aggressive or depressed and added that parents should seek help for their wards.

ABVP declares state-wide bandh

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) declared state-wide bandh of corporate educational institutions on Monday following series of student suicide.

According to a media communique issued by ABVP, they will protest against the Telangana government's negligence towards the issue. "In the past three years, the government has been silent on the student suicides in corporate educational institutions. It is time that the government cracks a whip on these institutions to save future of lakhs of students," said Javvaji Dileep, Hyderabad city secretary of ABVP.

All We Know About Rohith Vermula’s Suspension and Suicide - ScoopWhoop

Jan 21, 2016 at 15:37

All We Know About Rohith Vermula’s Suspension and Suicide

by

Swati Goel

Follow @scoopwhoop

Rohith Vermula, 26, a second year PhD scholar, committed suicide on Sunday night at a hostel of Hyderabad Central University. He was among the five research scholars at the university who were suspended in December over allegations of disputes with students

A student staging a protest in Nagpur / PTI

Why was he suspended?

• The university students – belonging to various students groups like right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) (of which Vermula was a member) and Telangana SFI - had been fighting over several issues such as beef festival, memorial for Yakub Menon and Kiss of Love campaign. Apparently, ABVP had been opposing these.
• The latest trigger was in August when ASA tried to screen Nakul Shawney’s documentary titled Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai at the campus, which was opposed by ABVP, who disrupted the screening and called it “anti-Hindu”. The Ambedkar Reading Group, University of Delhi, Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, IIT Madras, ASA (TISS) in Mumbai and concerned students from IIT Bombay even issued a joint statement condemning the act.
• But it became violent when ABVP president Sushil Kumar put up a Facebook post calling ASA members ‘goons’. Kumar later alleged that he was beaten up by ASA members including Vermula.
• After the incident, the Hyderabad University administration stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of Rs 25,000.
• On August 5, two days after Rohith and four other ASA members allegedly assaulted Sushil Kumar, the university set up an inquiry against the five.
• On August 17, BJP MP and Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya wrote to HRD Minister Smriti Irani urging action saying the university had become “a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”.

“This could be visualised from the fact that when Yakub Memon was hanged, a dominant students union, that is Ambedkar Students Union had held protests against the execution. When Shushil Kumar, president, ABVP, protested against this, he was manhandled and as a result he was admitted in hospital. What is more tragic is that the university administration has become a mute spectator to such events,” Bandaru wrote.

• In December, after the then VC's retirement, new chancellor - Appa Rao - was appointed. He suspended the students after receiving a letter from the HRD ministry, which was in response to Bandaru's letter.
• On January 3, the five students vacated the hostel and set up a tent in the campus and began a "relay hunger strike" 
• The five students were apparently very depressed about the suspension.

After the suicide

• The suicide led to a protest in the university, with the students demanding that Vermula, a Dalit, was driven to suicide and demanded resignations of Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday
• Following the protest, the police filed an FIR against Bandaru Dattatreya, under the SC/ST Act and on charges that he abetted the suicide
• The university students’ Joint Action Committee termed the suicide as “institutional murder” while opposition parties criticised the BJP-led NDA government for having an “anti-Dalit agenda and mindset”.

Police use water cannons to disperse protesting students in Delhi / PTI

• An umbrella organisation of the Hyderabad University launched an indefinite strike and sought the resignation of vice chancellor Appa Rao
• Protests erupted even in Delhi, where students demonstrated in front of HRD ministry office in Shastri Bhawan on Tuesday. The police used water cannons to disperse the students. Similar protests took place at Pune's Film and Television Institute of India and Mumbai University
• Noted writer Ashok Vajpeyi announced he was returning the D Lit, awarded to him by the Hyderabad Central University in protest.
• The police also recovered a suicide note from Rohith that said, "I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster."

Feature image: PTI

HYD DALIT’S SUICIDE FINDS AN ECHO IN KALINA CAMPUS - Mumbai Mirror

HYD DALIT’S SUICIDE FINDS AN ECHO IN KALINA CAMPUS

By Ankita Bhatkhande, Mumbai Mirror | Jan 20, 2016, 04.02 AM IST

The protesters, including students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT-Bombay, joined hands under the banner of Mumbai Student Solidarity Forum.

Simmering tension on University of Hyderabad campus sparked by the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula threatened to spread across the country on Tuesday. Mumbai saw a demonstration by nearly 200 students outside the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai. 

The protesters, including students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT-Bombay, joined hands under the banner of Mumbai Student Solidarity Forum. They demanded strict action against those responsible for pushing the PhD student to take the extreme step. 

Vemula, who had been living in a tent after being expelled from hostel, killed himself on Sunday evening in Hyderabad. Though the student, who was affiliated to the Ambedkar Students Association, blamed no one for his death, his friends accused Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya of pressing university officials to take action against him. 

The minister had alleged that Vemula and four other ASA members had assaulted a leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during an agitation on the campus. 

Carrying banners and placards that showed their resentment against politicisation of education, the group also urged Kalina authorities to convey their demands to the Union HRD ministry, apparently in their bid to put pressure on the Union government for prompt action. 

"What has happened to Rohit can happen with anyone. Communal and right-wing forces are entering campuses with a political motive. Instead of resolving the issues of students, the college administration is trying to silence voices of protest," said Ajmal Khan, a research scholar from TISS. 

To reinforce their stand, the students pointed out to a Satyanarayan pooja organised on the campus. "This is an academic space where rituals like these should not be entertained. Instead of celebrating these rituals, we should improve the academic environment," said an IIT-B student requesting not to be named. 

The university security didn't initially allow the demonstrators to enter the campus, but the students stayed put till the administration relented. "The university has given the ABVP permission to hold a candlelight march on the campus. But when students like us from different universities have gathered here, why are they denying our rights to a peaceful protest," said All India Forum for Right to Education member Ghanshyam Sonar at the scene. 

The students insisted that the vice chancellor speak to them and address their issues. "We want the VC to write to the ministry on our behalf as a mark of dissent for this institutional murder of Vemula," said one of them. 

Nearly four hours after the protest began, Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh met the students and assured them to do his bit. He said, "Mumbai university is a secular space. No discrimination would be entertained and tolerated on the basis of caste, class or gender".

Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula commits suicide, Hyderabad Central University students protest - First Post

Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula commits suicide, Hyderabad Central University students protest

by FP Staff  Jan 18, 2016 11:19 IST

In August last year, the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), along with Ambedkar Reading Group, University of Delhi, Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, IIT Madras, ASA (TISS) in Mumbai and concerned students from IIT Bombay issued a joint statement condemning an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attack on screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hain. Later, ASA's University of Hyderabad chapter organised a protest demonstration.

According to Counter Currents, five dalit students were asked to vacate their accommodation and find different quarters for themselves. Their living spaces were locked by the hostel administration. One of the reasons cited for this was that the students opposed the death sentences awarded to Yakub Memon.

Rohit Vemula. Twitter/@akslal

The screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hain was stalled by the ABVP and according to the report on Counter Currents, derogatory remarks against ASA students were made on the Facebook page. When an apology was demanded, local BJP and RSS supporters pressurised the vice-chancellor of the university to expel the ASA leaders based on "false allegations".

This did not stick because of student protests. According to another report on Counter Currents on this issue, the students (Dontha Prashanth, Rohith Vemula, Vijay Kumar, Seshu Chemudugunta and Sunkanna) were also denied permission to participate in the student union elections.

After the then VC's retirement, new chancellor — Apparao — was appointed. Apparao promptly dismissed the students after receiving a letter from the HRD ministry. The move was recommended by Bandaru Dattatreya, Secunderabad MP and Minister of Labour and Employment, who called the ASA group "casteist, extremist and anti-national". Read the letter here.

One of the students who was denied admission, 26-year-old Rohith Vemula, committed suicide on Sunday evening. Vemula was a second year PhD student. According to The New Indian Express report, Vemula was active in student politics, but had grown increasingly silent after the disciplinary action was initiated against him by the university. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups said Rohith was highly depressed due to suspension and expulsion from the hostel. JAC said the student was hurt due to the social boycott. The research scholars were expelled from their hostel in December. They were denied access to hostels and other buildings on the campus except their classroom, library and conferences and workshops related to their subject of study. They were evicted from their rooms on January and since then they were forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus.

Vemula, the UoH student who committed suicide by hanging himself on the university campus on Sunday;
he used the blue banner of ASA for hanging. Vemula was known for his active participation in student politics. However, post the disciplinary action initiated against him by the varsity administration, he had grown extraordinarily silent. He along with four other suspended students had been staging protest on the campus for last 15 days. They were sleeping in open to protest expulsion from the hostel. On Sunday, Rohith left the camp to spend the day in NRS hostel room.

Pranay Rupani, a fellow PhD student who met with Vemula during the protests told Firstpost, "The University Administration could have handled this so much better and in the process saved the life of a young research scholar. The University is nothing like that, and the minister of labour and employment should be busy creating jobs not getting involved in a campus scuffles."

Criticising the way the university administration is trying to stifle dissent among students, Rupani added, "If we cannot have a free opinion in an informed deliberative space like a University then what is the use of a democracy, what is the use of my vote."

Shortly after the news of his suicide broke, various student activist groups have expressed their solidarity and support

According to this NDTV report, a group of students sat with Vemula's body all night and refused to allow a funeral unless the university authorities gave them a listen. A police team arrived later and took the body and eight students were arrested.

Speaking to Firstpost, Rupani felt that the university was being heartless the way they even announced Vemula's passing away to the students.