‘Everything is abnormal’ at IIT Guwahati, students allege they’re being driven to suicide
IIT Guwahati students say there’s a lack of professional counselling and empathy among teachers, which is driving some to take the extreme step.
Wrote to PMO, but to no avail
Another Ph.D. student, Sunayan Deka, said he too had requested to have his supervisor changed. “I was unable to work under him because of his unprofessional behaviour. Many students had got it changed very easily. But in my case, I was asked to apologise and when I did not do it, I was terminated without hearing,” he said.
Deka approached the authorities at the institute as well as outside, including writing to the Prime Minister’s Office, but to no avail. His letter to the PMO, he said, stated that his supervisor made him share credit for his work with those who hadn’t done any, and also did not pay any heed to serious complaints of ragging.
Vikrant Singh, another student, corroborated this information. “Sunayan Deka has been jobless for a very long time and the administration will use this as a ground to terminate him,” he said, suggesting that there should be some special arrangements for students who come from deprived communities as they have to struggle a lot to survive on the campus.
Singh alleged that all the counsellors are “highly incompetent”.
Dr Brijesh Kumar Rai, a professor at the institute, concurred with the students.
“The institute needs good counsellors to help students deal with psychological issues. This is a big problem that they need to fix. There are counsellors, but they are not good. Also, I feel that the faculty members are not empathetic towards students,” Rai said.
Discussions on suicides across IITs have gained ground recently after Fathima Lateef, a student at IIT Madras, committed suicide, alleging religious discrimination by faculty members. The issue was also raised in Parliament, and the student’s father was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of a CBI inquiry. They also assured the family that the government will look into all recent suicide incidents in IITs and IIMs.
IIT Guwahati students say there’s a lack of professional counselling and empathy among teachers, which is driving some to take the extreme step.
16 December, 2019 9:33 am IST
IIT-Guwahati | Photo: http://www.iitg.ac.in/
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New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, has reported 14 student deaths in the last five years, including suicides, the Ministry of Human Resource Development told Parliament on 2 December. This is the highest number of deaths in any of the 23 IITs for the given period.
The media reported that IIT Guwahati had topped the number of suicide cases, which the institute denied. However, many students told ThePrint that there are issues that have driven students to take the extreme step — such as lack of empathy from faculty members and the absence of professional counselling.
ThePrint spoke to a number of students and professors over the phone to understand the issues, and posed questions about their allegations to the institute. However, the detailed email remained unanswered until the time of publication of this report.
Professor V. Venkata Dasu, dean of student affairs at IIT-G, told ThePrint that he “did not wish to talk about the allegations”, saying a circular had already been issued disputing the numbers and clarifying that all deaths were not suicides.
The circular, sent through the general secretary of the Students’ Welfare Board, Aditya Sanwal, on 4 December, also asked students not to share any news about suicides, calling it “fake”.
“I request you all not to share the news report regarding number of suicides in IITs. The number 14 quoted for IIT Guwahati in the report includes all deaths including natural, accidental and unnatural,” the circular stated.
“Even one is a huge number when we are talking about suicides, but the message and bad name that the institute gets due to these reports is sometimes irreparable. We all agree that the issue is of grave seriousness and we need to sit together to tackle the issue, but attaching it to other issues, twisting facts and providing misleading information is obviously not helping.”
IIT-Guwahati | Photo: http://www.iitg.ac.in/Text Size: A- A+
New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, has reported 14 student deaths in the last five years, including suicides, the Ministry of Human Resource Development told Parliament on 2 December. This is the highest number of deaths in any of the 23 IITs for the given period.
The media reported that IIT Guwahati had topped the number of suicide cases, which the institute denied. However, many students told ThePrint that there are issues that have driven students to take the extreme step — such as lack of empathy from faculty members and the absence of professional counselling.
ThePrint spoke to a number of students and professors over the phone to understand the issues, and posed questions about their allegations to the institute. However, the detailed email remained unanswered until the time of publication of this report.
Professor V. Venkata Dasu, dean of student affairs at IIT-G, told ThePrint that he “did not wish to talk about the allegations”, saying a circular had already been issued disputing the numbers and clarifying that all deaths were not suicides.
The circular, sent through the general secretary of the Students’ Welfare Board, Aditya Sanwal, on 4 December, also asked students not to share any news about suicides, calling it “fake”.
“I request you all not to share the news report regarding number of suicides in IITs. The number 14 quoted for IIT Guwahati in the report includes all deaths including natural, accidental and unnatural,” the circular stated.
“Even one is a huge number when we are talking about suicides, but the message and bad name that the institute gets due to these reports is sometimes irreparable. We all agree that the issue is of grave seriousness and we need to sit together to tackle the issue, but attaching it to other issues, twisting facts and providing misleading information is obviously not helping.”
Graphic by Arindam Mukherjee | ThePrint
Also read: IIT, IIM evaded faculty reservation for years. Modi now wants to undo exclusion
‘Everything is abnormal’
Students ThePrint spoke to said the new director of IIT Guwahati, T.G. Sitharam, has not held a single townhall meeting — where the director and students exchange ideas — which has made the authorities inaccessible for them.
A Ph.D. student, on the condition of anonymity, said: “I have been on the campus for the last five years and have seen a lot… Last year, a first year student committed suicide in the first six months itself. As far as I know, her reason was personal, not academic. However, I feel that had there been good professional counselling in the institute, she could have been saved.”
Srijeeb Karmakar, another Ph.D. student, said: “Everything is abnormal with IIT Guwahati…”
Karmakar, who broke down during his conversation with this reporter, said he had tried to commit suicide.
“The institute has driven me to the brink of committing suicide. I have been given a lot of trouble by the institute, for a simple reason… I just wanted to get my research supervisor changed. When I could not get it done, I thought of sharing my problem with the faculty and senior students of IIT Guwahati, but it just went against me,” he said.
Karmakar added that he is a classical dancer, and his supervisor ridicules him because of this and thinks it is a personality disorder.
The institute does not have good facilities to deal with psychological issues that the students face, Karmakar alleged, giving the example of a Master’s student who developed a phobia that someone would stab him.
“(Name redacted) had a phobia that someone will stab him and this made him a laughing stock among the student fraternity. Students used to make fun of him because of his fears, and this made him aggressive. The institute could have helped him with proper treatment and counselling but instead they terminated him,” Karmakar alleged.
Also read: IIT fixation fades? 29% of students who cleared JEE Mains opted out of JEE Advanced in 2019
Also read: IIT, IIM evaded faculty reservation for years. Modi now wants to undo exclusion
‘Everything is abnormal’
Students ThePrint spoke to said the new director of IIT Guwahati, T.G. Sitharam, has not held a single townhall meeting — where the director and students exchange ideas — which has made the authorities inaccessible for them.
A Ph.D. student, on the condition of anonymity, said: “I have been on the campus for the last five years and have seen a lot… Last year, a first year student committed suicide in the first six months itself. As far as I know, her reason was personal, not academic. However, I feel that had there been good professional counselling in the institute, she could have been saved.”
Srijeeb Karmakar, another Ph.D. student, said: “Everything is abnormal with IIT Guwahati…”
Karmakar, who broke down during his conversation with this reporter, said he had tried to commit suicide.
“The institute has driven me to the brink of committing suicide. I have been given a lot of trouble by the institute, for a simple reason… I just wanted to get my research supervisor changed. When I could not get it done, I thought of sharing my problem with the faculty and senior students of IIT Guwahati, but it just went against me,” he said.
Karmakar added that he is a classical dancer, and his supervisor ridicules him because of this and thinks it is a personality disorder.
The institute does not have good facilities to deal with psychological issues that the students face, Karmakar alleged, giving the example of a Master’s student who developed a phobia that someone would stab him.
“(Name redacted) had a phobia that someone will stab him and this made him a laughing stock among the student fraternity. Students used to make fun of him because of his fears, and this made him aggressive. The institute could have helped him with proper treatment and counselling but instead they terminated him,” Karmakar alleged.
Also read: IIT fixation fades? 29% of students who cleared JEE Mains opted out of JEE Advanced in 2019
Wrote to PMO, but to no avail
Another Ph.D. student, Sunayan Deka, said he too had requested to have his supervisor changed. “I was unable to work under him because of his unprofessional behaviour. Many students had got it changed very easily. But in my case, I was asked to apologise and when I did not do it, I was terminated without hearing,” he said.
Deka approached the authorities at the institute as well as outside, including writing to the Prime Minister’s Office, but to no avail. His letter to the PMO, he said, stated that his supervisor made him share credit for his work with those who hadn’t done any, and also did not pay any heed to serious complaints of ragging.
Vikrant Singh, another student, corroborated this information. “Sunayan Deka has been jobless for a very long time and the administration will use this as a ground to terminate him,” he said, suggesting that there should be some special arrangements for students who come from deprived communities as they have to struggle a lot to survive on the campus.
Singh alleged that all the counsellors are “highly incompetent”.
Dr Brijesh Kumar Rai, a professor at the institute, concurred with the students.
“The institute needs good counsellors to help students deal with psychological issues. This is a big problem that they need to fix. There are counsellors, but they are not good. Also, I feel that the faculty members are not empathetic towards students,” Rai said.
Discussions on suicides across IITs have gained ground recently after Fathima Lateef, a student at IIT Madras, committed suicide, alleging religious discrimination by faculty members. The issue was also raised in Parliament, and the student’s father was assured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of a CBI inquiry. They also assured the family that the government will look into all recent suicide incidents in IITs and IIMs.
