vks (patna)
05 Sep, 2011 02:49 AM
The title IIT student commits suicide attracts me due to my own story I am remembering my first semester last month , I tried 3-4 times for suicide but I was lucky my attempts were not successful. Then one morning I decided to leave the IIT and ran off from campus without any information. After a big drama I returned back to my house and said to my parents I am not going back. my parents supported me they were thinking that at least their son was with them. And next year again I filled the form and take admission in other IIT . I just want to explain the situation that drifts the student towards suicide. Neither parents nor the IIT system is responsible for these type of suicide. Actually its the psychology of student, when they are in school they are in toppers list, but in IIT all student are toppers of their school so here maintaining a level is tougher than earlier. And in this race some students make a circle around them and not opened up , that lead to slow depression and after few month the student become suicidal. As I said it takes 2-3 months to 2-3 yrs time so it can be easily detected and treated by parents, friends and by faculty. NO any doctor is needed for these type of cases. Family, friend and faculty support is enough. So my request is don’t ignore anything happening with your friend or any person around you.
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Anjali (Jamaica )
02 Sep, 2011 10:17 PM
Very very sad indeed!!! I totally blame the parents here for unnecessary pressurizing their child into taking such a drastic step. I think all the parents should learn the lesson from this incident and keep in mind this could happen to their own kin as well.....
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Ravi Shankar (Patna, India)
02 Sep, 2011 07:34 PM
Now it's proved that this society is not going to let the students live normally. Even IITians commit suicide;SO,dear society,what do do you want us to be GOD or something.Enough is enough.Saari Umr ham mar mar ke ji lia,kuch pal hame jine do jine do.
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4thaugust1932 (Tokyo)
02 Sep, 2011 01:32 PM
Indian education system is creating skilled wage slaves instead of entrepreneurs viz employers.
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vkguptan (Bangalore)
02 Sep, 2011 12:10 PM
Those who go for Medicine, Engineering and such professional courses should have aptitude for the subject. Also capacity learn. Everyone is not endowed with it. It is just luck. Intelligence is God's gift. Earlier there were only four IITs. To begin with I think there was only IIT-Kharagpur was there and later others came with foreign help- England, Russia and US. All together there were less than 1000 seats and the best went for the IITs. Others went to other engineering colleges. Now with the increase in number of IITs, students with less capability are able to get admission. They find the course tough and these kinds of depression and mental stress comes. Every parents have their dreams. Many who could not achieve much in their lives want their offspring to do better. It is human nature and cannot be helped. Everyone will put their aim high but all cannot succeed. I sympathize with the parents of the girl who committed suicide. My father dreamed that one day I will be well placed and will own a car. He made a gate to our compound in the village to bring the car inside. I could not fulfill his dream. I could never buy a car. So that is life.
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Ramesh (bangalore)
02 Sep, 2011 10:08 AM
is it is a suicide? or the corruption of patna that took her away of her life..........i would like to know.
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karun (Chennai)
02 Sep, 2011 09:55 AM
some parents are never satisfied with their children. If your children are in IIT it doesn't mean they are going to be the president of some country and they need to be in pressure to make the betterment of a billion people. For heaven sake parents they might just earn a few $ less then the brilliant guys. So please come out of your narrow mind set of greediness and encourage your kid to what he can really achieve.
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Arvind (Pune)
02 Sep, 2011 09:54 AM
The human touch is required in all professional institutes and council ling should be improved further.Life is the most precious one and maximum possible effort should be put after that be happy with the result. Mostly parents do not know the complications hence they do mistake. Also rivalry among students should be effectively controlled. Qualities of these sort required for the entire life.
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Sonia (Chennai)
02 Sep, 2011 09:48 AM
Its very unfortunate that student commit suicide for GRADES.. In life unless one learn to face the failure, one wont have value of success.I request, all the parents not to pressurize their child and all students not to go behind the grade, just focus on studies and do ur job.. Life is very important, its not for u alone but ur family too...
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A Comment:--
I am a student of IIT Delhi. I can say that the institute is fully
responsible for such acts by students. The pressure is so much, and so
'undue' that it curbs creativity, curbs freedom, encourages rot
learning and then everything is decided on the grade you have.
Definitely not an ideal place to spend the previous 4/5 years of your
life. The professors exert undue pressure and sometimes seem to be
motivated by a sense of vengeance(in that they themselves clear JEE).
This coupled with the fact that professors are 'kings' in IIT's, leads
many students to a hopeless despair and depression. I won't be
surprised if more students commit suicide in near future.
Showing posts with label OPINIONS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OPINIONS. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
119 - Why are the IITs suicide prone? -
Every student who committed suicide at such renowned institutes as the IITs dealt with severe pressures of various kinds, which are interlinked. Not getting a proper recruitment, examination stress, depression are some of the major factors.
CJ: Archana Mishra Fri, Jan 09, 2009 16:11:00 IST
November 29, 2004: Swapnil Chandrakant Dhasraskar, second year mechanical at IIT Kanpur
November 10, 2005: Lokesh Chand, third year ECE, IIT Rourkee.
November 17, 2005: Vijay Nakula, fourth year CSE, IIT Powai.
October 9, 2006: Anjan Kumar, second year, Chemical, IIT Kanpur.
November 6, 2006: Abhilash JJ, a PhD scholar from Kerala, pursuing doctoral studies at IIT Kanpur.
April 19, 2008: Prashant Kumar, first year student of electrical engineering, IIT Kanpur.
January 3, 2009: G. Suman, second year M.Tech student, IIT Kanpur.
YOU MIGHT be guessing what are these details for? One thing which grabs the eyeballs in the first glance is Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). These are not the names of the students who have done amazing work in their fields at young age, but names of those who committed suicides. Yes, these suicides are becoming common incidences at IIT.
IIT Kanpur tops the ranking in the number of suicides every year.
The year 2009 began with a fresh suicidal case of G Suman who allegedly killed himself by hanging. Upset over not getting a job through campus recruitment, Suman, a postgraduate IIT student took such a decision. Before him it was Prashant Kumar, first year student who also hanged himself in the room, apparently stressed over his exams. Abhilash JJ allegedly committed suicide consuming some cyanide and wrote a suicide note, which said he was under depression.
Every student who committed suicide at such a renowned institute dealt with severe pressures of various kinds, which are interlinked. Not getting a proper recruitment, examination stress, depression are some of the major factors. So, who should be blamed for these suicides, improper educational system, terrible stress on students in such reputed colleges or we as students who desire for higher studies in such institutes and with high expectation.
Every parent wants their child to be a topper in their class and expecting further, their child should get admission in IIT. When one enters the IIT, there is not only expectation from the parents that the student need to perform better but the student himself who has a higher self expectation being a part of the IIT.
However, to study at IIT is not everyone’s cup of tea. The study material in any of the courses is not only tough but it’s hectic for the students as well. Besides these in every semester two exams are conducted consecutively in a day, which builds a huge pressure on the students’ mind. For a major lot, even the professors seems to uncooperative, as they always try to build pressure on them in some way or the other.
The stress to maintain the reputation of being an IITian, dejected and ashamed because not many students flunk that often and the mounting stress to better and to have a good GPI or CPI is killing (pun intended).
Last but not the least the campus recruitment creates depression for students that make them emotionally weak and force them to end their lives.
Human nature is such that high self expectation creates within us an ego centric attitude, which in a state of depression fills our mind with negative thoughts and provokes for such a cowardly act of committing suicide.
An article that I read stated that suicides are because of an individual intrinsic character. It is also called copy cat suicide. In Wikipidea it has been stated, “The well known suicides serve as a model, in the absence of protective factors for the next suicide. This is referred as ‘suicide contagion’. These occasionally spread through school system, through community or in terms of celebrity suicide wave.”
With the rising suicidal rates, it can be said that today EQ (emotional quotient) is perhaps more important than IQ (intelligence quotient).
CJ: Archana Mishra Fri, Jan 09, 2009 16:11:00 IST
November 29, 2004: Swapnil Chandrakant Dhasraskar, second year mechanical at IIT Kanpur
November 10, 2005: Lokesh Chand, third year ECE, IIT Rourkee.
November 17, 2005: Vijay Nakula, fourth year CSE, IIT Powai.
October 9, 2006: Anjan Kumar, second year, Chemical, IIT Kanpur.
November 6, 2006: Abhilash JJ, a PhD scholar from Kerala, pursuing doctoral studies at IIT Kanpur.
April 19, 2008: Prashant Kumar, first year student of electrical engineering, IIT Kanpur.
January 3, 2009: G. Suman, second year M.Tech student, IIT Kanpur.
YOU MIGHT be guessing what are these details for? One thing which grabs the eyeballs in the first glance is Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). These are not the names of the students who have done amazing work in their fields at young age, but names of those who committed suicides. Yes, these suicides are becoming common incidences at IIT.
IIT Kanpur tops the ranking in the number of suicides every year.
The year 2009 began with a fresh suicidal case of G Suman who allegedly killed himself by hanging. Upset over not getting a job through campus recruitment, Suman, a postgraduate IIT student took such a decision. Before him it was Prashant Kumar, first year student who also hanged himself in the room, apparently stressed over his exams. Abhilash JJ allegedly committed suicide consuming some cyanide and wrote a suicide note, which said he was under depression.
Every student who committed suicide at such a renowned institute dealt with severe pressures of various kinds, which are interlinked. Not getting a proper recruitment, examination stress, depression are some of the major factors. So, who should be blamed for these suicides, improper educational system, terrible stress on students in such reputed colleges or we as students who desire for higher studies in such institutes and with high expectation.
Every parent wants their child to be a topper in their class and expecting further, their child should get admission in IIT. When one enters the IIT, there is not only expectation from the parents that the student need to perform better but the student himself who has a higher self expectation being a part of the IIT.
However, to study at IIT is not everyone’s cup of tea. The study material in any of the courses is not only tough but it’s hectic for the students as well. Besides these in every semester two exams are conducted consecutively in a day, which builds a huge pressure on the students’ mind. For a major lot, even the professors seems to uncooperative, as they always try to build pressure on them in some way or the other.
The stress to maintain the reputation of being an IITian, dejected and ashamed because not many students flunk that often and the mounting stress to better and to have a good GPI or CPI is killing (pun intended).
Last but not the least the campus recruitment creates depression for students that make them emotionally weak and force them to end their lives.
Human nature is such that high self expectation creates within us an ego centric attitude, which in a state of depression fills our mind with negative thoughts and provokes for such a cowardly act of committing suicide.
An article that I read stated that suicides are because of an individual intrinsic character. It is also called copy cat suicide. In Wikipidea it has been stated, “The well known suicides serve as a model, in the absence of protective factors for the next suicide. This is referred as ‘suicide contagion’. These occasionally spread through school system, through community or in terms of celebrity suicide wave.”
With the rising suicidal rates, it can be said that today EQ (emotional quotient) is perhaps more important than IQ (intelligence quotient).
Thursday, June 16, 2011
113 - 14th May 2011 - IIT’s stressed-out geeks opt for suicide solution - Tehelka
Management and counseling cells come under fire for failing to tackle spike in deaths
Sai Manish , Chennai
Sai Manish , Chennai
By the time Nitin Reddy’s door on the third floor of the Jamuna Hostel in IIT Madras was broken open by his friend after a frantic call from his father, it was too late. The 24-year-old’s limp body was hanging from the fan.
Barely hours before he cut his life short on 4 May, Nitin had made his intentions clear to his father and friends. “I tried hard but I lost,” wrote Nitin, lovingly called ‘Swamy’ by his friends, on his Facebook wall. He emailed his father A Lakashmana Murthy who works in DRDO and told him he was going to kill himself and what should be done with his possessions after he was gone. By the time Murthy, who works in New Delhi, alerted the local guardians in Chennai, it was all over.
On 2 May, Nitin, a final-year MTech (mechanical engineering) student was ordered to do another semester, which meant he could not pass out with his batchmates and faced the prospect of losing the lucrative job that he had landed at a Bengaluru-based software company.
Like the many bright sparks who fly out of IIT every year, Nitin was an adventure-loving geek. He had hugged a tree, loved someone he shouldn’t have, attended martial arts classes, feigned sickness, slept through an entire flight, performed on stage, ridden a horse, broken a bone, enjoyed his daily dose of World of Warcraft, cheered for Lionel Messi, disapproved of IIT’s skewed sex ratio, gatecrashed a party and anonymously donated to charity
Barely hours before he cut his life short on 4 May, Nitin had made his intentions clear to his father and friends. “I tried hard but I lost,” wrote Nitin, lovingly called ‘Swamy’ by his friends, on his Facebook wall. He emailed his father A Lakashmana Murthy who works in DRDO and told him he was going to kill himself and what should be done with his possessions after he was gone. By the time Murthy, who works in New Delhi, alerted the local guardians in Chennai, it was all over.
On 2 May, Nitin, a final-year MTech (mechanical engineering) student was ordered to do another semester, which meant he could not pass out with his batchmates and faced the prospect of losing the lucrative job that he had landed at a Bengaluru-based software company.
Like the many bright sparks who fly out of IIT every year, Nitin was an adventure-loving geek. He had hugged a tree, loved someone he shouldn’t have, attended martial arts classes, feigned sickness, slept through an entire flight, performed on stage, ridden a horse, broken a bone, enjoyed his daily dose of World of Warcraft, cheered for Lionel Messi, disapproved of IIT’s skewed sex ratio, gatecrashed a party and anonymously donated to charity
“Nitin was the core (coordinator) under whom I worked at the Centre of Innovation. He was always in the thick of action and was a person who would be up for a discussion any time during the budget meetings,” says hostel mate Sai Prasad. “Two nights before his suicide, he casually mentioned that he feared getting an extension and he could lose his job. But he did not look tense. It was just one of those pre-dinner talks about our personal lives that invariably get mingled with academics. But I didn’t really imagine that he would go this far.”
“He was just asked to serve one more semester,” says IIT director MS Ananth. “As a teacher, I have been shaken by his actions. Professors will always make performance demands and that is how students excel. We can’t run an institution where students have become so sensitive to pressure. We have to look at an individual’s personal history also to examine what made him end his life.”
The management’s attitude has not gone down too well with Nitin’s distraught father who has lodged a police complaint, moved the National Human Rights Commission and is demanding a broader inquiry.
“The management is trying to discredit my son. If he was depressed then we should have been informed by his professors or by the counseling cell,” says Murthy. “I want a probe into this. If it is my son’s fault, then I am ready to take the blame. But if it is the IIT’s fault then the professor who denied my son the opportunity to pass out with his batchmates in May should be suspended.”
It is surprising that despite having personal guides and a Guidance and Counseling Unit (GCU), the management is playing a blame game by invoking Nitin’s history of depression. It is also surprising that Nitin’s guide PV Mannivannan and the management waited until just a week before the last day of the term to tell Nitin that he would have to attend classes for one more semester.
Nitin had landed a plum job at a campus interview. Despite his low CGPA, he was looking to capitalise on the great opportunity and that’s when his professor burst his bubble. His employers were not willing to wait. And also at stake were the innumerable questions that prospective employers might ask about his extension. Moreover he was the only one in his department to have been asked to serve and that amplified his embarrassment. All this created immense psychological stress, which eventually made him take the extreme step.
The death is part of a shocking trend of a spike in suicides among final-year students across IITs. Nitin’s suicide is the third such death in IIT Madras in as many years. Other IITs are even more notorious for their unusually high rates of academically linked suicides.
IIT Kharagpur — called the “suicide hotspot” by students — saw as many three suicides between 23 April and 15 July 2009, and has since averaged one suicide a year. IIT Bombay has been rocked by almost one suicide every year with two suicides in 2007. IIT Roorkee witnessed its first suicide this year when a BTech student jumped to death from the eighth floor of his hostel.
The most notorious of the lot has been IIT Kanpur, which has seen eight suicides in the past five years. In face of these figures, the IIT managements have acted in a manner that even students term “stupid and bizarre”.
If IIT Madras has blamed Nitin for being “depressed”, a four-member committee appointed by IIT Kanpur after the death of final-year student Madhuri Sale last year made even more ridiculous suggestions to prevent suicides. After Madhuri hung herself in her hostel room, the committee comprising professors recommended removing all ceiling fans from hostel rooms and replacing them with pedestal fans. Among the other measures included reducing Internet speeds to curb “web addiction”, which was being touted as one of the main reasons for suicides. There was also a plan to limit the use of cell phones so that parents could not easily talk to their children and pressurise them and also abolish the concept of single rooms and make room sharing mandatory. The plan became the butt of all jokes among the students and invited ridicule from across the board.
Many complain that the GCUs serve no useful purpose. This flaw was bared prominently when IIT Bombay student Srikanth Malepulla, 21, hanged himself in his hostel room. Despite having a GCU that includes professors and professionals, he was not identified by the mentor system as “troubled and prone to suicide”.
“We keep an eye on students in the first year and monitor every move. When they enter the second year, most have formed their friend circle and we stop monitoring their personal lives actively. The GCU cannot be a peeping tom after that and plays a more passive role,” says Ananth.
However, psychologists believe that students and parents should be willing to shoulder the blame as well. “Parents are responsible for this too,” says psychologist Divyan Varghese. “They lower the stress threshold limit of their child due to high expectations. And many kill themselves because of the fear that their parents would not accept failure. The stress on an IITian is more than the stress outside in the real world.”
Tanuj Bansal, who passed out of IIT Delhi in 2007, has an interesting take on why an IITian is under immense duress. “The first two years are the most academically challenging in IIT. But many who come think, just by entering IIT, the battle has been won,” says Bansal. “Ironically, the first two years are the best time to have a good CGPA. Even though the third and fourth years are more relaxed, it is extremely hard to improve in the last two years if one has had low grades in the first two.
“I was in the placement cell and I saw the madness among the final-year students. Out of 1,200, we managed to place 900. But the remaining had to struggle because companies wouldn’t hire them due to low CGPAs. In Nitin’s case, he had low grades but got a good job offer. And then he was given an extension that jeopardised his employment. So it was a combination of stress and embarrassment that made him take the extreme step.”
Bansal’s point becomes even more relevant when seen in the light of Nitin’s outbursts on social networks. For instance, when he received an internship offer from a firm in Texas last year, Nitin wrote on Google Buzz, “Am going to the US for summer internship. All you 9 pointers - IN YOUR FACE”. That gives a rare insight into how Nitin felt about overachievers in a fiercely competitive environment.
“Every kid who comes here has stood first in his school. And in IIT, in a class of 50, somebody out of the No. 1s has to be No. 50. The competition is huge,” says Ananth.
Despite the blame games that ensue after every suicide, there has been no concerted effort at a scientific study of the suicide phenomena that has reached epidemic proportions across IITs. The management has been reluctant to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The ministry seems to be oblivious that every few months, stressed out IITians like Nitin are succumbing to a competitive culture that doesn’t afford them the opportunity to breathe easy.
It needs to wake up and conduct a study that transforms the culture of institutes that are producing brilliant engineers and entrepreneurs, but also mental wrecks.
Sai Manish is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
sai.manish@tehelka.com
“He was just asked to serve one more semester,” says IIT director MS Ananth. “As a teacher, I have been shaken by his actions. Professors will always make performance demands and that is how students excel. We can’t run an institution where students have become so sensitive to pressure. We have to look at an individual’s personal history also to examine what made him end his life.”
The management’s attitude has not gone down too well with Nitin’s distraught father who has lodged a police complaint, moved the National Human Rights Commission and is demanding a broader inquiry.
“The management is trying to discredit my son. If he was depressed then we should have been informed by his professors or by the counseling cell,” says Murthy. “I want a probe into this. If it is my son’s fault, then I am ready to take the blame. But if it is the IIT’s fault then the professor who denied my son the opportunity to pass out with his batchmates in May should be suspended.”
It is surprising that despite having personal guides and a Guidance and Counseling Unit (GCU), the management is playing a blame game by invoking Nitin’s history of depression. It is also surprising that Nitin’s guide PV Mannivannan and the management waited until just a week before the last day of the term to tell Nitin that he would have to attend classes for one more semester.
Nitin had landed a plum job at a campus interview. Despite his low CGPA, he was looking to capitalise on the great opportunity and that’s when his professor burst his bubble. His employers were not willing to wait. And also at stake were the innumerable questions that prospective employers might ask about his extension. Moreover he was the only one in his department to have been asked to serve and that amplified his embarrassment. All this created immense psychological stress, which eventually made him take the extreme step.
The death is part of a shocking trend of a spike in suicides among final-year students across IITs. Nitin’s suicide is the third such death in IIT Madras in as many years. Other IITs are even more notorious for their unusually high rates of academically linked suicides.
IIT Kharagpur — called the “suicide hotspot” by students — saw as many three suicides between 23 April and 15 July 2009, and has since averaged one suicide a year. IIT Bombay has been rocked by almost one suicide every year with two suicides in 2007. IIT Roorkee witnessed its first suicide this year when a BTech student jumped to death from the eighth floor of his hostel.
The most notorious of the lot has been IIT Kanpur, which has seen eight suicides in the past five years. In face of these figures, the IIT managements have acted in a manner that even students term “stupid and bizarre”.
If IIT Madras has blamed Nitin for being “depressed”, a four-member committee appointed by IIT Kanpur after the death of final-year student Madhuri Sale last year made even more ridiculous suggestions to prevent suicides. After Madhuri hung herself in her hostel room, the committee comprising professors recommended removing all ceiling fans from hostel rooms and replacing them with pedestal fans. Among the other measures included reducing Internet speeds to curb “web addiction”, which was being touted as one of the main reasons for suicides. There was also a plan to limit the use of cell phones so that parents could not easily talk to their children and pressurise them and also abolish the concept of single rooms and make room sharing mandatory. The plan became the butt of all jokes among the students and invited ridicule from across the board.
Many complain that the GCUs serve no useful purpose. This flaw was bared prominently when IIT Bombay student Srikanth Malepulla, 21, hanged himself in his hostel room. Despite having a GCU that includes professors and professionals, he was not identified by the mentor system as “troubled and prone to suicide”.
“We keep an eye on students in the first year and monitor every move. When they enter the second year, most have formed their friend circle and we stop monitoring their personal lives actively. The GCU cannot be a peeping tom after that and plays a more passive role,” says Ananth.
However, psychologists believe that students and parents should be willing to shoulder the blame as well. “Parents are responsible for this too,” says psychologist Divyan Varghese. “They lower the stress threshold limit of their child due to high expectations. And many kill themselves because of the fear that their parents would not accept failure. The stress on an IITian is more than the stress outside in the real world.”
Tanuj Bansal, who passed out of IIT Delhi in 2007, has an interesting take on why an IITian is under immense duress. “The first two years are the most academically challenging in IIT. But many who come think, just by entering IIT, the battle has been won,” says Bansal. “Ironically, the first two years are the best time to have a good CGPA. Even though the third and fourth years are more relaxed, it is extremely hard to improve in the last two years if one has had low grades in the first two.
“I was in the placement cell and I saw the madness among the final-year students. Out of 1,200, we managed to place 900. But the remaining had to struggle because companies wouldn’t hire them due to low CGPAs. In Nitin’s case, he had low grades but got a good job offer. And then he was given an extension that jeopardised his employment. So it was a combination of stress and embarrassment that made him take the extreme step.”
Bansal’s point becomes even more relevant when seen in the light of Nitin’s outbursts on social networks. For instance, when he received an internship offer from a firm in Texas last year, Nitin wrote on Google Buzz, “Am going to the US for summer internship. All you 9 pointers - IN YOUR FACE”. That gives a rare insight into how Nitin felt about overachievers in a fiercely competitive environment.
“Every kid who comes here has stood first in his school. And in IIT, in a class of 50, somebody out of the No. 1s has to be No. 50. The competition is huge,” says Ananth.
Despite the blame games that ensue after every suicide, there has been no concerted effort at a scientific study of the suicide phenomena that has reached epidemic proportions across IITs. The management has been reluctant to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The ministry seems to be oblivious that every few months, stressed out IITians like Nitin are succumbing to a competitive culture that doesn’t afford them the opportunity to breathe easy.
It needs to wake up and conduct a study that transforms the culture of institutes that are producing brilliant engineers and entrepreneurs, but also mental wrecks.
Sai Manish is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
sai.manish@tehelka.com
112 - 12th May 2011 - LET’S STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! - Indian Fusion
EVERY TIME A PEDESTRIAN IS RUN OVER BY A CAR. IT’S NOT ALWAYS THE DRIVER’S FAULT!
IIT B Student had short Attendance in 3 courses.. CGP : 4ish out of 10. He commits Suicide. Prof’s and System are Blamed.
IIT Kanpur Post Grad Student can’t get a Job in campus placements. He Commits Suicide.
Recently an IIT M Student gets BTP Extension. Spirals into Depression. Commits Suicide. Prof. is under Scanner.
Let’s ask a few questions before we begin to get Sentimental about yet another Suicide ?
Should Ganguly have committed Suicide when he was given an Indefinite extension after being dropped in 92 ?
Would you have blamed the BCCI for crushing the ambitions of a 22 year Old? But Ganguly didn’t commit Suicide. He Waited!
Should Ganguly have committed Suicide when he was given an Indefinite extension after being dropped in 92 ?
Would you have blamed the BCCI for crushing the ambitions of a 22 year Old? But Ganguly didn’t commit Suicide. He Waited!
Couldn’t the Gentlemen in IIT M have waited too ? ( And with all due respect to IITans, Pressure on Cricketers is infinitely higher.)
So, How is some one’s act of Impulse the System’s Fault ?
So, How is some one’s act of Impulse the System’s Fault ?
Moving On…
In 2005, one of the very early cases of Student Suicides an IIT Bombay Student Vijay Nakula committed suicide, for getting XX grade (which means you would have to repeat the course because of attendance shortage) in 3 courses among other reasons.
Tomorrow Let’s say a Professor commits suicide for lack of attendance of Students in HIS class. Let’s say, he got depressed for that reason.. Let’s say, he is giving his best, still no one is attending the class. Would you blame the Student fraternity in the colleges for not being serious about Studies…
Would you be willing to blame the System ( Markets in this Case) ?
In 2005, one of the very early cases of Student Suicides an IIT Bombay Student Vijay Nakula committed suicide, for getting XX grade (which means you would have to repeat the course because of attendance shortage) in 3 courses among other reasons.
Tomorrow Let’s say a Professor commits suicide for lack of attendance of Students in HIS class. Let’s say, he got depressed for that reason.. Let’s say, he is giving his best, still no one is attending the class. Would you blame the Student fraternity in the colleges for not being serious about Studies…
Would you be willing to blame the System ( Markets in this Case) ?
Would the Student Fraternity be willing to go for all the Lectures to prevent any more Prof’s from going into Depression and any subsequent suicides?
Take your guess.
My guess is No.
My Guess is an Emphatic, NO!!!!!
Take your guess.
My guess is No.
My Guess is an Emphatic, NO!!!!!
Professor writes a mail mentioning the list of people to be awarded Fail Grade. Student commits Suicide after finding his name in it.
Argument. The E Mail was Harsh!!
If tomorrow a Critic trashes a movie, Can the lead Actor commit suicide citing a harsh review in his defense.. Would you buy that ?
Why are we glorifying Suicides in IIT’s ? Why are we projecting them as Victims of the System?
For somebody who takes HIS own life for a BTP Extension. I am sorry to say is a Victim of his own Choices ! ( Whatever may have been the Circumstances)
So let’s stop projecting these Students as Martyrs. For it creates a False Precedent. A sort of Suicidal Peer Pressure (Pardon the Phrase, but true) among the Students to come.
I call it the Induction effect of committing suicides.
Argument. The E Mail was Harsh!!
If tomorrow a Critic trashes a movie, Can the lead Actor commit suicide citing a harsh review in his defense.. Would you buy that ?
Why are we glorifying Suicides in IIT’s ? Why are we projecting them as Victims of the System?
For somebody who takes HIS own life for a BTP Extension. I am sorry to say is a Victim of his own Choices ! ( Whatever may have been the Circumstances)
So let’s stop projecting these Students as Martyrs. For it creates a False Precedent. A sort of Suicidal Peer Pressure (Pardon the Phrase, but true) among the Students to come.
I call it the Induction effect of committing suicides.
SUPPOSED CAUSES OF SUICIDES.
People Blame Academic Pressure for these Suicides.
Oh It’s too Stressful.
I ask, WHY SHOULD IIT BE EASY?
You feel you can take it, fine. Else Quit.
Everyone is fine with the Goods which IIT tag has to offer..
The Campus Placements for Majority, and the other Fringe Benefits of being an IITan. A Default Respect in the Society among other things.
So why shouldn’t you be made to earn every cent of it ?
You find the Pressure Enormous…Quit IIT!!
Do something else. Why Quit your Life?
If you choose to stay in IIT ! Play by the Rules.
People Blame Academic Pressure for these Suicides.
Oh It’s too Stressful.
I ask, WHY SHOULD IIT BE EASY?
You feel you can take it, fine. Else Quit.
Everyone is fine with the Goods which IIT tag has to offer..
The Campus Placements for Majority, and the other Fringe Benefits of being an IITan. A Default Respect in the Society among other things.
So why shouldn’t you be made to earn every cent of it ?
You find the Pressure Enormous…Quit IIT!!
Do something else. Why Quit your Life?
If you choose to stay in IIT ! Play by the Rules.
THE PARADOX BEHIND VARIOUS POPULAR REASONS FOR STRESS
Some Students blame the number of tests and quizzes in IIT.
Which is ironic because when the same Students were preparing for IIT JEE, most of them would opt for Multiple Test Series. FIITJEE, Bansal, Resonance…That time you couldn’t have enough of them!
So why have the tests suddenly become a Problem ?
You Graduated out of the same system..
People say, Oh the moment you come into IIT, there is a sense of loss of Identity. Toppers in their respective Batches are now no longer toppers.
Well the same happens when you start JEE preparation. Toppers from Various Schools, Join a Coaching Institute, where most of them no longer remain toppers…
So why are the same constants suddenly a problem.. ?
Some Students blame the number of tests and quizzes in IIT.
Which is ironic because when the same Students were preparing for IIT JEE, most of them would opt for Multiple Test Series. FIITJEE, Bansal, Resonance…That time you couldn’t have enough of them!
So why have the tests suddenly become a Problem ?
You Graduated out of the same system..
People say, Oh the moment you come into IIT, there is a sense of loss of Identity. Toppers in their respective Batches are now no longer toppers.
Well the same happens when you start JEE preparation. Toppers from Various Schools, Join a Coaching Institute, where most of them no longer remain toppers…
So why are the same constants suddenly a problem.. ?
THE WORLD DOESN’T OWE YOU A LIVING! IT WAS HERE FIRST
An IIT K Student doesn’t get a Campus Placement. He commits Suicide.
The Argument given to his friend before ending his life was, Itni Mehnat kari, Itne number laaye.. Phir bhi Job nahin lagi! ”
Can a Hockey Player commit Suicide for the same Reason.. “ Yaar Itni Mehnat kari, Itne goal kiye, phir bhi Advertisement nahin mile! ”
Job Nahin Mili, Suicide kar li?
What bothers me is the mindset of some of the Students that IIT somehow owes them a LIVING!
No it doesn’t. Nor does the World!!
You didn’t create that Brand. Your Predecessors did. So how does IIT owe you anything?
IIT is an Educational Institute. Not a Life Insurance!
An IIT K Student doesn’t get a Campus Placement. He commits Suicide.
The Argument given to his friend before ending his life was, Itni Mehnat kari, Itne number laaye.. Phir bhi Job nahin lagi! ”
Can a Hockey Player commit Suicide for the same Reason.. “ Yaar Itni Mehnat kari, Itne goal kiye, phir bhi Advertisement nahin mile! ”
Job Nahin Mili, Suicide kar li?
What bothers me is the mindset of some of the Students that IIT somehow owes them a LIVING!
No it doesn’t. Nor does the World!!
You didn’t create that Brand. Your Predecessors did. So how does IIT owe you anything?
IIT is an Educational Institute. Not a Life Insurance!
The friends of the person who committed suicide are the first to criticize the system.
I say, If you were such a good friend, why didn’t you make sure he attended the lectures, when his attendance was getting short. why didn’t you drag him to classes ?
If he hates the classes, why didn’t you help him find what he loved doing?
He got extension because his project got delayed, Why didn’t you make his project report. If you think the system pressure can often lead to suicide.. Didn’t you see your friend’s suicide coming when he was failing in courses and missing deadlines?
In one sentence you blame the System and the Pressure, when you did nothing to help your friend though it ?
And the worst part is, none of the friends had an inkling of what was about to come!
So much for being a Friend.
WHICH SYSTEM IS AT FAULT?
Which system is at Fault ?
If you choose to highlight these 3 Suicides, I can show you 20 people in the same batch who have done exceedingly well..
Some may be under the same Prof, who is under the Scanner.
3 out of 5000. In Science that’s not called a System Error. That’s called Standard Deviation.
Darwin would have dismissed the same, with his “Survival of the Fittest” Argument.
You could call me Cold, or Apathetic, or Ignorant or anything you want to, but if you are really serious about ending these Suicides.
My Humble Request is Stop Glorifying Every Suicide.
For Every time a Pedestrian gets run over, it’s not always the Cars Fault. Assuming that’s it’s always a Drivers Fault is a matter of convenience. Not Fact!
May be it was error of Judgment on the Student’s Part.
Who Knows?
May be all those Students who committed suicide are regretting it now in Heaven.
May be the recent IITM guy is thinking, ” I could have waited!”
May be that Kanpur guy who jumped thought in Mid Air, “What the F*** did I do? I should have fought this?”
That Girl who hung herself, while wincing in pain on the rope, ” God I don’t want to die! Give me one more chance!”
Who is to know ? May be they are hating themselves in Heaven.
I mean, “I just couldn’t live with myself knowing I had just killed myself.”
In that Scenario would the present Arguments against system and Professors still be Valid?
HUMAN SOLUTIONS.
People have suggested all sort of Solutions.
Ban the LAN. ( Internet)
Reduce Work Load/ Academic Stress
Counseling Sessions.
Now that we have failed with the seemingly Necessary Logical Solutions. Let’s try a Human Solution!
Suicide is an Impulse Decision…
So, I don’t think we need to Subtract or Reduce anything. We need to add something to the system.
Girls. Women. ( Don’t succumb to you Impulse Judgment. Read Along)
May be all Students need ( keeping all things constant) are some Women, or Emotional Stabilizers as I call them.
Most Married Men would testify the importance of their Partner in testing times.
May be that’s why they say, Behind Every Successful Man there is a Women.
There are things men tell their girlfriends, they would never tell their best of friends.
A 2 Month old Girl Friend knows more about you than the best of your Friends.
The Truth is, People are not comfortable sharing their Secrets with even the best of their Male Friends..
1 Because you are constantly seeking their approval, Especially the ones who are closest to you.. So your best friend is often the last person you would confess your problem to.
2. Sometimes you might look upon your friends as competitors.
3. May be you don’t have a Real Friend…
So you can’t confess your problem to your Best Friend.
You won’t tell a person who don’t think is Close enough.
You can’t talk to your Parents. Very Few of us share our problems with our Parents.. For you don’t want to make them tense or let them down (Sounds almost Ironic after the eventuality though)
Who is Left ?
No Wonder None of those friends or the family Saw any of those suicides coming!!
My Guess is a Feminine Shoulder might have helped.
MAY BE..
May be Women are the answer, for IIT’s given their skewed Sex Ratio are Social Concentration Camps, Especially in that Age! For boys as well as Girls. (It’s actually worse for girls than for guys!)
So May be the answer lies in doing something about that Social Imbalance*** (Conditions Apply)
May be it’s just that some of the torch bearers of the Intellectual Elite might happen to be Emotionally Challenged…
May be Minds good at Numbers are not too good in analyzing situations, where No Numbers are involved.
May be the whole problem is that the people in question didn’t have a Confidante..Because the problems in most cases looked pretty manageable in hindsight.
May be the underline problem is Loneliness!!!
The Silent Killer!
May be that’s why so many Silently passed away, without even their closest Friends knowing..
May Be….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
*** : Having Said that, I am well aware that Women might not be a Necessary or a Sufficient Constant for Emotional Well Being for Some People and Vice Versa… So, I don’t mean to say this is THE SOLUTION. But it might be a part of THE SOLUTION, we all are looking for..The whole point is, Student Suicide is like the Multi-variable Problem in Mathematics. There are as many Variables as the Number of Individuals….. So No One Solution would Fit all…Some Solutions might even sound trivial in the context of the whole problem.. Like the small evolutionary steps which eventually led to Evolution of Species. Seemingly Unimportant small changes/additions, but when Integrated over time, led to LIFE!!
To Integrate my Partially differentiated thoughts:
The Solution to this Problem might not be in (big radical changes in system)/REVOLUTION. It might lie in simple EVOLUTION!
It’s Evolution that gave LIFE to our Planet. It could do the same to our Educational Institutes!
So, Women Idea is my seemingly Unimportant small addition, but may be when Integrated over time, might lead to a SAVED LIFE!!
–
Nitin Gupta
The author Nitin Gupta is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Bombay famous for creating a Cult Play ‘Love In December’.
Fresh out of Campus, he got an offer to perform on Laughter Challenge, the opportunity which he later turned down! The reason is a simple mission .He founded Entertainment Engineers , to make Stand Up Comedy respectable in India and to create a humor Renaissance in this country. Humor he says, ought to have an emotionality to it. We not only want people to laugh and think, we want them to LAUGH, THINK and FEEL at the same time. T.V. was not the medium to do that. So Nitin took to the Stage, College Festivals, Corporate Shows. And in a short span he has already enthralled the Audiences in some of the Biggest College Festivals in India, IITs, NITs, IIMs their Alumini Meets and various FORTUNE 500 Companies.
A Guest Speaker at various E- Cell Platforms and Marketing Conclaves. A TED Favorite. He is widely considered as the most Original Orators and Stand Up Comic of Present times.
This post is from his published notes and all due credit is paid to the Author
Which system is at Fault ?
If you choose to highlight these 3 Suicides, I can show you 20 people in the same batch who have done exceedingly well..
Some may be under the same Prof, who is under the Scanner.
3 out of 5000. In Science that’s not called a System Error. That’s called Standard Deviation.
Darwin would have dismissed the same, with his “Survival of the Fittest” Argument.
You could call me Cold, or Apathetic, or Ignorant or anything you want to, but if you are really serious about ending these Suicides.
My Humble Request is Stop Glorifying Every Suicide.
For Every time a Pedestrian gets run over, it’s not always the Cars Fault. Assuming that’s it’s always a Drivers Fault is a matter of convenience. Not Fact!
May be it was error of Judgment on the Student’s Part.
Who Knows?
May be all those Students who committed suicide are regretting it now in Heaven.
May be the recent IITM guy is thinking, ” I could have waited!”
May be that Kanpur guy who jumped thought in Mid Air, “What the F*** did I do? I should have fought this?”
That Girl who hung herself, while wincing in pain on the rope, ” God I don’t want to die! Give me one more chance!”
Who is to know ? May be they are hating themselves in Heaven.
I mean, “I just couldn’t live with myself knowing I had just killed myself.”
In that Scenario would the present Arguments against system and Professors still be Valid?
HUMAN SOLUTIONS.
People have suggested all sort of Solutions.
Ban the LAN. ( Internet)
Reduce Work Load/ Academic Stress
Counseling Sessions.
Now that we have failed with the seemingly Necessary Logical Solutions. Let’s try a Human Solution!
Suicide is an Impulse Decision…
So, I don’t think we need to Subtract or Reduce anything. We need to add something to the system.
Girls. Women. ( Don’t succumb to you Impulse Judgment. Read Along)
May be all Students need ( keeping all things constant) are some Women, or Emotional Stabilizers as I call them.
Most Married Men would testify the importance of their Partner in testing times.
May be that’s why they say, Behind Every Successful Man there is a Women.
There are things men tell their girlfriends, they would never tell their best of friends.
A 2 Month old Girl Friend knows more about you than the best of your Friends.
The Truth is, People are not comfortable sharing their Secrets with even the best of their Male Friends..
1 Because you are constantly seeking their approval, Especially the ones who are closest to you.. So your best friend is often the last person you would confess your problem to.
2. Sometimes you might look upon your friends as competitors.
3. May be you don’t have a Real Friend…
So you can’t confess your problem to your Best Friend.
You won’t tell a person who don’t think is Close enough.
You can’t talk to your Parents. Very Few of us share our problems with our Parents.. For you don’t want to make them tense or let them down (Sounds almost Ironic after the eventuality though)
Who is Left ?
No Wonder None of those friends or the family Saw any of those suicides coming!!
My Guess is a Feminine Shoulder might have helped.
MAY BE..
May be Women are the answer, for IIT’s given their skewed Sex Ratio are Social Concentration Camps, Especially in that Age! For boys as well as Girls. (It’s actually worse for girls than for guys!)
So May be the answer lies in doing something about that Social Imbalance*** (Conditions Apply)
May be it’s just that some of the torch bearers of the Intellectual Elite might happen to be Emotionally Challenged…
May be Minds good at Numbers are not too good in analyzing situations, where No Numbers are involved.
May be the whole problem is that the people in question didn’t have a Confidante..Because the problems in most cases looked pretty manageable in hindsight.
May be the underline problem is Loneliness!!!
The Silent Killer!
May be that’s why so many Silently passed away, without even their closest Friends knowing..
May Be….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
*** : Having Said that, I am well aware that Women might not be a Necessary or a Sufficient Constant for Emotional Well Being for Some People and Vice Versa… So, I don’t mean to say this is THE SOLUTION. But it might be a part of THE SOLUTION, we all are looking for..The whole point is, Student Suicide is like the Multi-variable Problem in Mathematics. There are as many Variables as the Number of Individuals….. So No One Solution would Fit all…Some Solutions might even sound trivial in the context of the whole problem.. Like the small evolutionary steps which eventually led to Evolution of Species. Seemingly Unimportant small changes/additions, but when Integrated over time, led to LIFE!!
To Integrate my Partially differentiated thoughts:
The Solution to this Problem might not be in (big radical changes in system)/REVOLUTION. It might lie in simple EVOLUTION!
It’s Evolution that gave LIFE to our Planet. It could do the same to our Educational Institutes!
So, Women Idea is my seemingly Unimportant small addition, but may be when Integrated over time, might lead to a SAVED LIFE!!
–
Nitin Gupta
The author Nitin Gupta is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Bombay famous for creating a Cult Play ‘Love In December’.
Fresh out of Campus, he got an offer to perform on Laughter Challenge, the opportunity which he later turned down! The reason is a simple mission .He founded Entertainment Engineers , to make Stand Up Comedy respectable in India and to create a humor Renaissance in this country. Humor he says, ought to have an emotionality to it. We not only want people to laugh and think, we want them to LAUGH, THINK and FEEL at the same time. T.V. was not the medium to do that. So Nitin took to the Stage, College Festivals, Corporate Shows. And in a short span he has already enthralled the Audiences in some of the Biggest College Festivals in India, IITs, NITs, IIMs their Alumini Meets and various FORTUNE 500 Companies.
A Guest Speaker at various E- Cell Platforms and Marketing Conclaves. A TED Favorite. He is widely considered as the most Original Orators and Stand Up Comic of Present times.
This post is from his published notes and all due credit is paid to the Author
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
85 - 19th Nov 2010- IIT-Kanpur: Eight cases of suicide in 5 yrs MSN
Crime file: Eight students, including two women, have committed suicide at IIT-Kanpur in the past five years. In a shocking incident, a Briton brutally killed a baby girl who apparently 'interrupted' his video game. Lucknow police arrest a doctor for selling corpses. Read on.
Fourth year student hangs self, institute forms probe team
Kanpur: A fourth-year B Tech (civil engineering) student of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) reportedly committed suicide in her hostel room on Wednesday afternoon. Madhuri Sale, 21, is said to have hanged herself with a rope from the ceiling fan.
Eight students, including two women, have committed suicide in the institute in the past five years.
Though it is not clear why Sale committed suicide, IIT-K authorities suspect she was under pressure because of her poor performance in exams, coupled with the fact the campus placement process is just a forthnight away.
No suicide note has been found in the hostel room of Sale, a resident of Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh.
The institute has constituted a four-member committee headed by Professor Omkar Dixit to probe the incident. The committee is expected to hand over the report in the next five days.
The semester exams began on November 15 and the last paper is scheduled for November 22. There was no examination on November 17 as the institute was closed for Eid. On Wednesday morning, the cleaning staff knocked her door around 11:30 am but got no response. Believing that she was busy, they went back. When the staff returned at 2:30 pm. the door was still locked and there was no response.
They got suspicious and informed IIT-K director Sanjay Govind Dhande. Security guards broke open the door to find Sale hanging from the ceiling fan.
Three days before her suicide, on November 14, Sale had celebrated her birthday in the institute with her hostel friends. She was an average student, and had a cumulative performance index (CPI) of 5.6 out of 10. The performance of each IIT-K student is adjudged on the basis of the CPI.
Institute registrar Sanjeev S Kashalkhar said: "On November 16 evening, Sale had spoken to her mother and said she might have to stay here for one more semester." Kashalkar said prima facie it appeared that Sale had performed poorly in the first two exams of her seventh semester. He did not deny Sale might have been under the pressure due to the placement process.
DIG Kanpur Ashok Mutha Jain said: "Prima facie it appears to be suicide, but the postmortem will confirm the cause of death."
Lives Lost
Nov 17, 2010: Madhuri Sale, B.Tech
Jan 3, 2009: Gangapatnam Suman, M.Tech
May 30, 2008: Toya Chatterjee, B.Tech
April 18, 2008: Prashant Kumar Kureel, B.Tech
April 25, 2007: J Bharadwaj, B.Tech
May 3, 2006: Shailesh Kumar Sharma, B.Tech
Nov 30, 2005: Swapnil Chandrakant Bhaskar, B.Tech
Nov 6, 2005: Abhilash, PhD
Kanpur: A fourth-year B Tech (civil engineering) student of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) reportedly committed suicide in her hostel room on Wednesday afternoon. Madhuri Sale, 21, is said to have hanged herself with a rope from the ceiling fan.
Eight students, including two women, have committed suicide in the institute in the past five years.
Though it is not clear why Sale committed suicide, IIT-K authorities suspect she was under pressure because of her poor performance in exams, coupled with the fact the campus placement process is just a forthnight away.
No suicide note has been found in the hostel room of Sale, a resident of Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh.
The institute has constituted a four-member committee headed by Professor Omkar Dixit to probe the incident. The committee is expected to hand over the report in the next five days.
The semester exams began on November 15 and the last paper is scheduled for November 22. There was no examination on November 17 as the institute was closed for Eid. On Wednesday morning, the cleaning staff knocked her door around 11:30 am but got no response. Believing that she was busy, they went back. When the staff returned at 2:30 pm. the door was still locked and there was no response.
They got suspicious and informed IIT-K director Sanjay Govind Dhande. Security guards broke open the door to find Sale hanging from the ceiling fan.
Three days before her suicide, on November 14, Sale had celebrated her birthday in the institute with her hostel friends. She was an average student, and had a cumulative performance index (CPI) of 5.6 out of 10. The performance of each IIT-K student is adjudged on the basis of the CPI.
Institute registrar Sanjeev S Kashalkhar said: "On November 16 evening, Sale had spoken to her mother and said she might have to stay here for one more semester." Kashalkar said prima facie it appeared that Sale had performed poorly in the first two exams of her seventh semester. He did not deny Sale might have been under the pressure due to the placement process.
DIG Kanpur Ashok Mutha Jain said: "Prima facie it appears to be suicide, but the postmortem will confirm the cause of death."
Lives Lost
Nov 17, 2010: Madhuri Sale, B.Tech
Jan 3, 2009: Gangapatnam Suman, M.Tech
May 30, 2008: Toya Chatterjee, B.Tech
April 18, 2008: Prashant Kumar Kureel, B.Tech
April 25, 2007: J Bharadwaj, B.Tech
May 3, 2006: Shailesh Kumar Sharma, B.Tech
Nov 30, 2005: Swapnil Chandrakant Bhaskar, B.Tech
Nov 6, 2005: Abhilash, PhD
73 - 2nd July 2010 - Suicides in IIT Kanpur, Article by Kilkil Sachan
Suicides and attempts for suicide by the students of IIT Kanpur (An autonomous prestigious Institute where recruiters come from heaven) IIT Kanpur,
It was the night of this April 19’2010, Snehal Ajit Indurkar, student of IIT Kanpur cut a slit into her left hand nerve to end her life just because of the fear of termination, if you are stunned please don’t be now because this is like the sun rises every morning and sets in the evening, yes in IIT Kanpur this is a pattern here, eight students in four years ended their lives, and dozens have tried but any how they are saved, and many hundreds of students are under different type of psychological treatment here in IIT Kanpur, if you are judgmental here please don’t be now, story is a bit big. And you will be startled to know that immediately any suicide attempt happens IIT Kanpur administration found busy in preventing the news from spreading, even I have heard from a PhD student that before a year a girl attempted suicide and dean of student affairs Partha Chokraborty rang to health centre and warned the doctor about spreading the news and gave threat of job. Often in the morning I go for a walk in the lane where my director sir lives, a big cup of tea in left hand and the news paper in other hand, sitting with his wife with cheerful short conversations after every few minutes, his highness, he is a director here for the third time, you know I am a fan of him, wouldn’t you ask why, because he has made very good relations with upper cone of political hierarchy. Neither the President, Prime minister, MHRD, Home Ministry, Human Rights nor State Government tried to intervene this killing business in IIT Kanpur, he is a man of powers in this democratic country.
If you think to leave apart the suicides and attempts for suicide because IIT Kanpur has been a prestigious institute, retrieve the memories of expulsion of 50 students that was illegal as well as in humanitarian and malicious. I am saying it illegal in the sense that the senate that takes the decision was running short in number means quorum was incomplete and it is happening for last few years, I am saying it in-humanitarian as the students having genuine excuses (like heart surgery of parents etc) were expelled and students with no proper excuses were reinstated back. In last of the December 2009 IITK authorities issued termination letters to 140 students of various departments, don’t think this is a big number who couldn’t perform up-to mark but apart from this many hundred students are put in the category of under-performance called probation, this is real picture of academically inadequately running institute, if students in a huge numbers are being served as terminations this shows the failure of administration and management. Government is always found concerned about quality of education in our country but one thing that bothers me and many of us is why this government just ignoring the case of IIT Kanpur for the past few years while the situation is terribly cynical here and its world ranking is going down rapidly, simultaneously talking of reforms in education system every time.
Above indicated are not the only problems, institute is going through a lot of other atrocious implications and it’s a time to find out an immediate remedy for the disease before it jump to the next and irreparable level.
Article by:
Kilkil sachan
Graduate student
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
(IIT Kanpur)
Posted by Kilkil Sachan at 1:37 AM 0 comments Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Google Buzz
It was the night of this April 19’2010, Snehal Ajit Indurkar, student of IIT Kanpur cut a slit into her left hand nerve to end her life just because of the fear of termination, if you are stunned please don’t be now because this is like the sun rises every morning and sets in the evening, yes in IIT Kanpur this is a pattern here, eight students in four years ended their lives, and dozens have tried but any how they are saved, and many hundreds of students are under different type of psychological treatment here in IIT Kanpur, if you are judgmental here please don’t be now, story is a bit big. And you will be startled to know that immediately any suicide attempt happens IIT Kanpur administration found busy in preventing the news from spreading, even I have heard from a PhD student that before a year a girl attempted suicide and dean of student affairs Partha Chokraborty rang to health centre and warned the doctor about spreading the news and gave threat of job. Often in the morning I go for a walk in the lane where my director sir lives, a big cup of tea in left hand and the news paper in other hand, sitting with his wife with cheerful short conversations after every few minutes, his highness, he is a director here for the third time, you know I am a fan of him, wouldn’t you ask why, because he has made very good relations with upper cone of political hierarchy. Neither the President, Prime minister, MHRD, Home Ministry, Human Rights nor State Government tried to intervene this killing business in IIT Kanpur, he is a man of powers in this democratic country.
If you think to leave apart the suicides and attempts for suicide because IIT Kanpur has been a prestigious institute, retrieve the memories of expulsion of 50 students that was illegal as well as in humanitarian and malicious. I am saying it illegal in the sense that the senate that takes the decision was running short in number means quorum was incomplete and it is happening for last few years, I am saying it in-humanitarian as the students having genuine excuses (like heart surgery of parents etc) were expelled and students with no proper excuses were reinstated back. In last of the December 2009 IITK authorities issued termination letters to 140 students of various departments, don’t think this is a big number who couldn’t perform up-to mark but apart from this many hundred students are put in the category of under-performance called probation, this is real picture of academically inadequately running institute, if students in a huge numbers are being served as terminations this shows the failure of administration and management. Government is always found concerned about quality of education in our country but one thing that bothers me and many of us is why this government just ignoring the case of IIT Kanpur for the past few years while the situation is terribly cynical here and its world ranking is going down rapidly, simultaneously talking of reforms in education system every time.
Above indicated are not the only problems, institute is going through a lot of other atrocious implications and it’s a time to find out an immediate remedy for the disease before it jump to the next and irreparable level.
Article by:
Kilkil sachan
Graduate student
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
(IIT Kanpur)
Posted by Kilkil Sachan at 1:37 AM 0 comments Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Google Buzz
Saturday, June 4, 2011
42 - 2nd July 2008 - IIT Kanpur Suicides - Werther Effect/Copycat Suicides?- Digital Daroo
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Yet another suicide rocks IIT Kanpur. Yet another round of introspection. More statement blaming the student-faculty relationship, internet usage, grading system and academic pressure. Media bites with ridiculous statements from, both, the students and the faculty.
I'm not sure how much the situation has changed from my times - and they're not too far in the past, I'm a 2005 graduate - but, I really don't think that the academic pressure is too high at IIT Kanpur. Any lower, and it'll risk getting lost amongst the gazillions of second and third rung engineering institutes in the country.
Ditto with the grading system. It's not the best, but it's not the pits either. Every system has its pros and cons. And the cons are not that bad that they'd cause students to start committing suicides over them.
I think the suicides are because of an individual's intrinsic character and the Werther Effect. I first came across the Werther Effect while reading the chapter on social proof in Robert B. Cialdini's book, "Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion." The Werther Effect talks about how a highly publicized suicide can cause a number of follow up copy-cat suicides amongst people in the same situation. And suicides in IIT Kanpur (or any other IIT for that matter) are surely highly publicized. You have it splashed on the front pages of all local newspapers, the in-campus newsgroups would be flooded with posts, discussions in the quads & wings, special committees and reports, etc.
When I first read about the Werther Effect, I scoffed. But, now I've started believing in it. An extract from the Wikipedia article:
The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide. This is referred to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave, nationally. This is called a suicide cluster[1]. Examples of celebrities whose suicides have inspired suicide clusters include the Japanese musician Hide and Yukiko Okada.
I think some psychology/sociology professor from the IITs should be looking at this angle as well. In my opinion, the grading system and the academic pressure is just fine. Let's not degrade the quality of IITs any further - we've got politicians to do that for us!
Posted by Saurabh Nanda on Wednesday, July 02, 2008
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15 comments:
nareshov said...
That's an interesting point of view.
I don't remember thinking in this direction, or maybe I did and dropped it.
July 2, 2008 11:43 PM
Lekhni said...
Very interesting, and makes more sense than many of the other reasons being bandied about.
July 2, 2008 11:56 PM
curdriceaurora said...
I have witnessed 3 such suicides in my college within a period of 5 weeks. The first one was an academic case, but the other two were for personal reasons, but it one could pretty well see the fact that the other two got the GUTS ( if one may call it that ) to go ahead with their plans if they previously had any, since everyone of us attended the memorial service for the first guy.
Waste of one life itself is not justifiable, but starting a trend like this is unforgivable. But then again, there is none to take the blame for these situations.
July 3, 2008 9:13 AM
Arvind Iyer said...
Hey. nice article.
I can't believe your DIRO blamed it on internet and mobile phones!
Guess they are stupid across IITs...
July 3, 2008 9:46 AM
rahi.vidya said...
About the suicidal trends among students, I was never very comfortable with the step that they take. If they have gone to the IITs or any educational institute, they must have been well prepared for the grind. If not, it was their fault. By taking this extreme step, they are only creating problems for their college and their parents.
By the same logic, can't we ascribe the farmer suicides in many states to the Werther Effect? Do give it a Think.
July 3, 2008 10:11 AM
zakir ahmed said...
thats exactly what i think .. coz the other iits odnt report sucide this frequently
July 3, 2008 1:50 PM
appu said...
It seems a bit far-fetched at first, but I think you may be right. However,
I do have to argue - what's the ratio/%age of people who actually are
unhappy with their acads to those who are unhappy *enough* to take
the plunge? If you can establish that this ratio is decreasing over time,
then that's one solid pointer that this theory may be at work. Still, that's
not enough.
I agree with you though that the problem isn't the academics. I can say
that even though I made a hash of my own studies. The problem is lack
of guidance. *Most* people get into IITK nowadays riding on the strengths
of a "template" system. See this question? Attack it in this manner.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach if what matters to you
is the end, and not the means.
Think about it like this - when you were preparing for the JEE, the end
result was to get in, and once you got in, high-school math/physics etc.
slowly begins to lose importance (and you start to forget some really
basic stuff which you don't use often). Extend this. You're in IITK (or
whatever other engg. college) and your end goal is to make it big in
life. What you learn (technically) at IITK may not be of much help when
you go out and do your thing (Nanda isn't building concrete bridges,
for instance :D). So - the means to your end of achieving a degree with
good grades is not important. Do what it takes to work well with the
system. Template-ize it if/where you can.
Students already apply a few heuristics to this end. "Choose this
professor" or "Choose this course", "even if you don't like it". There's
more to it than just that.
One of the *easiest* ways to get good grades - even on the relative
grading scale - in IITK is to simply go attend classes. The average
student in a batch/class is smart enough to get a B if he/she simply
attends every class (and by attend I mean being attentive and absorbing
what is taught). The A-graders/batch-maxers/abs-ers are those who
can take this understanding and apply it just a little bit better than
the B-graders. However, sitting in on classes is enough to get you
good (around 7.5-8/10) grades.
This fact is lost on most students - even on those who attend
regularly. All the counselling service (and parents) need to do is to
encourage people to attend classes, and be up-to-date on class
notes and stuff.
That's enough.
And they're missing this point. Every semester, every year, every
batch, every suicide is just another indication that they're missing
this point.
July 3, 2008 3:09 PM
ramesh said...
duh man .. "The Werther Effect blah blah copy-cat suicides amongst people in the same situation" .. Now same situation is the key here .. most colleges face suicides, and our iit in kharagpur has had a relatively low rate of suicide about one in two years (last 5 years) .. those didn't lead to more suicides .. so what i mean is that the something is really wrong with the 'situation' in kanpur, and not just people wanting to copy each other!!
July 3, 2008 6:15 PM
Curiousmoron said...
Spot on! I completely agree with your view on the issue.
However, I have a few points.
1. Grading and teaching in IITs(atleast IITKGP) is awful. It's more like Jadavpur or Calcutta University where 65 is considered a good percentage and a very high score. It's that way in IITKGP. 65 translates to a 7/10 which is C which is average or maybe less than average. But certainly not to the extent that you go and commit suicide.
2. Most of the people I know who do well and get bad grades are certainly not happy with the evaluation system and teaching there. I am one among them. I am 1000% sure that people in my place who have many backlogs are not contemplating to commit suicide. After all IIT is just a mode of killing 4 or 5 years of your precious time when you could have learnt a lot of science.
I feel those people who commit suicide are losers and would even dare to say that they are just not fit to live.
July 3, 2008 6:52 PM
Shashi Mittal said...
Hi Nanda,
Your argument of the chain-effect of one suicide leading to another in IITK seems to be pretty valid. However, the fact that such a thing did start at all in the campus points to the fact that there is indeed something wrong with the system.
Academically, I was in a pretty good position all the time I was in IITK, and presumably I have benefited a lot from the system. But there are other aspects of this system about which I strongly feel need some reform. As Apurva rightly pointed out, a large majority of the students are simply not happy with the present state of affairs. Why? Who is to blame for this situation? The students? The administration? As always, the blame lies with both the sides. Apurva has already stated what the problem is with the students, and I agree fully with him on this account. I will dwell on the other side of the problem.
It is right that we need a rigorous academic system at IITK, because after all that is what has made our alma mater such a famed place to study. But I personally believe that it will be better, for all of us, if the academic pressure is eased slightly. I know of instances where instructors in courses have been quite unreasonable in their attitude towards students, especially those who are not-so-good in terms of students. There is a kind of discrimination, even if it is not quite direct, against the students with lower academic standing, which makes their life even tougher. I am not saying that the academics should be made less rigorous - i all for it. Just that it should be more reasonable, and more accommodating for all the students who enter the institute.
July 7, 2008 1:02 AM
Shefaly said...
Good post although as you can see from following this link below, the internet and other random concepts that are not so well-understood are often touted as 'explanations' of such trends.
Hopefully, IITK will not see the Welsh phenomenon. Read on:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/117749?from=rss
July 9, 2008 7:23 PM
Mayanand Jha said...
I graduated from IITK in 2005 and now pursuing my masters from University of Calgary in Canada. The academic pressure here on undergrads is more or less same as we had in IITK, but grading is really cool here. Undergrads here too have a very hectic life as I see many undergrads doing part time job also for supporting their education. I feel less senior-junior interaction can also be one of the reason for these rampant suicides. I witnessed a significant drop in senior-junior interaction at IITK. Ragging aka informal introduction was good means to have great interaction with seniors. I think ragging in IITK was pretty much within the limits but it was totally crushed by dosa(dean). The seniors I befriended during ragging period had been very supportive.
July 10, 2008 7:11 AM
ramu said...
david deangelo style !! how did you come across that book huh ..?? :D
October 13, 2008 9:29 AM
Nandz said...
Ramu: Picked it off Joel Spolsky's reading list. I pick up most of my non-fiction stuff from there.
October 13, 2008 12:07 PM
Anonymous said...
Dear sir whatever,
You know what!!!!!!!!!
sucide is really big matter and you are just compelling it.
Respect to you for being an IIT alumni, but a sucide for publicity is not a deal.
You don't know what the students are going through here."Everyone have different life and ofcourse different way of dealing with situations.So you don't have the right to call it some blah blah blah blah.
there is always a very big reason behind such a great step, which you would not even understand or even you don't give a damn to it.
And by this cheap blog you are just abusing those soul who faced the horrible aftermath........
p.s
a lot have changed since you graduated.
I'm not sure how much the situation has changed from my times - and they're not too far in the past, I'm a 2005 graduate - but, I really don't think that the academic pressure is too high at IIT Kanpur. Any lower, and it'll risk getting lost amongst the gazillions of second and third rung engineering institutes in the country.
Ditto with the grading system. It's not the best, but it's not the pits either. Every system has its pros and cons. And the cons are not that bad that they'd cause students to start committing suicides over them.
I think the suicides are because of an individual's intrinsic character and the Werther Effect. I first came across the Werther Effect while reading the chapter on social proof in Robert B. Cialdini's book, "Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion." The Werther Effect talks about how a highly publicized suicide can cause a number of follow up copy-cat suicides amongst people in the same situation. And suicides in IIT Kanpur (or any other IIT for that matter) are surely highly publicized. You have it splashed on the front pages of all local newspapers, the in-campus newsgroups would be flooded with posts, discussions in the quads & wings, special committees and reports, etc.
When I first read about the Werther Effect, I scoffed. But, now I've started believing in it. An extract from the Wikipedia article:
The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide. This is referred to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave, nationally. This is called a suicide cluster[1]. Examples of celebrities whose suicides have inspired suicide clusters include the Japanese musician Hide and Yukiko Okada.
I think some psychology/sociology professor from the IITs should be looking at this angle as well. In my opinion, the grading system and the academic pressure is just fine. Let's not degrade the quality of IITs any further - we've got politicians to do that for us!
Posted by Saurabh Nanda on Wednesday, July 02, 2008
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15 comments:
nareshov said...
That's an interesting point of view.
I don't remember thinking in this direction, or maybe I did and dropped it.
July 2, 2008 11:43 PM
Lekhni said...
Very interesting, and makes more sense than many of the other reasons being bandied about.
July 2, 2008 11:56 PM
curdriceaurora said...
I have witnessed 3 such suicides in my college within a period of 5 weeks. The first one was an academic case, but the other two were for personal reasons, but it one could pretty well see the fact that the other two got the GUTS ( if one may call it that ) to go ahead with their plans if they previously had any, since everyone of us attended the memorial service for the first guy.
Waste of one life itself is not justifiable, but starting a trend like this is unforgivable. But then again, there is none to take the blame for these situations.
July 3, 2008 9:13 AM
Arvind Iyer said...
Hey. nice article.
I can't believe your DIRO blamed it on internet and mobile phones!
Guess they are stupid across IITs...
July 3, 2008 9:46 AM
rahi.vidya said...
About the suicidal trends among students, I was never very comfortable with the step that they take. If they have gone to the IITs or any educational institute, they must have been well prepared for the grind. If not, it was their fault. By taking this extreme step, they are only creating problems for their college and their parents.
By the same logic, can't we ascribe the farmer suicides in many states to the Werther Effect? Do give it a Think.
July 3, 2008 10:11 AM
zakir ahmed said...
thats exactly what i think .. coz the other iits odnt report sucide this frequently
July 3, 2008 1:50 PM
appu said...
It seems a bit far-fetched at first, but I think you may be right. However,
I do have to argue - what's the ratio/%age of people who actually are
unhappy with their acads to those who are unhappy *enough* to take
the plunge? If you can establish that this ratio is decreasing over time,
then that's one solid pointer that this theory may be at work. Still, that's
not enough.
I agree with you though that the problem isn't the academics. I can say
that even though I made a hash of my own studies. The problem is lack
of guidance. *Most* people get into IITK nowadays riding on the strengths
of a "template" system. See this question? Attack it in this manner.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach if what matters to you
is the end, and not the means.
Think about it like this - when you were preparing for the JEE, the end
result was to get in, and once you got in, high-school math/physics etc.
slowly begins to lose importance (and you start to forget some really
basic stuff which you don't use often). Extend this. You're in IITK (or
whatever other engg. college) and your end goal is to make it big in
life. What you learn (technically) at IITK may not be of much help when
you go out and do your thing (Nanda isn't building concrete bridges,
for instance :D). So - the means to your end of achieving a degree with
good grades is not important. Do what it takes to work well with the
system. Template-ize it if/where you can.
Students already apply a few heuristics to this end. "Choose this
professor" or "Choose this course", "even if you don't like it". There's
more to it than just that.
One of the *easiest* ways to get good grades - even on the relative
grading scale - in IITK is to simply go attend classes. The average
student in a batch/class is smart enough to get a B if he/she simply
attends every class (and by attend I mean being attentive and absorbing
what is taught). The A-graders/batch-maxers/abs-ers are those who
can take this understanding and apply it just a little bit better than
the B-graders. However, sitting in on classes is enough to get you
good (around 7.5-8/10) grades.
This fact is lost on most students - even on those who attend
regularly. All the counselling service (and parents) need to do is to
encourage people to attend classes, and be up-to-date on class
notes and stuff.
That's enough.
And they're missing this point. Every semester, every year, every
batch, every suicide is just another indication that they're missing
this point.
July 3, 2008 3:09 PM
ramesh said...
duh man .. "The Werther Effect blah blah copy-cat suicides amongst people in the same situation" .. Now same situation is the key here .. most colleges face suicides, and our iit in kharagpur has had a relatively low rate of suicide about one in two years (last 5 years) .. those didn't lead to more suicides .. so what i mean is that the something is really wrong with the 'situation' in kanpur, and not just people wanting to copy each other!!
July 3, 2008 6:15 PM
Curiousmoron said...
Spot on! I completely agree with your view on the issue.
However, I have a few points.
1. Grading and teaching in IITs(atleast IITKGP) is awful. It's more like Jadavpur or Calcutta University where 65 is considered a good percentage and a very high score. It's that way in IITKGP. 65 translates to a 7/10 which is C which is average or maybe less than average. But certainly not to the extent that you go and commit suicide.
2. Most of the people I know who do well and get bad grades are certainly not happy with the evaluation system and teaching there. I am one among them. I am 1000% sure that people in my place who have many backlogs are not contemplating to commit suicide. After all IIT is just a mode of killing 4 or 5 years of your precious time when you could have learnt a lot of science.
I feel those people who commit suicide are losers and would even dare to say that they are just not fit to live.
July 3, 2008 6:52 PM
Shashi Mittal said...
Hi Nanda,
Your argument of the chain-effect of one suicide leading to another in IITK seems to be pretty valid. However, the fact that such a thing did start at all in the campus points to the fact that there is indeed something wrong with the system.
Academically, I was in a pretty good position all the time I was in IITK, and presumably I have benefited a lot from the system. But there are other aspects of this system about which I strongly feel need some reform. As Apurva rightly pointed out, a large majority of the students are simply not happy with the present state of affairs. Why? Who is to blame for this situation? The students? The administration? As always, the blame lies with both the sides. Apurva has already stated what the problem is with the students, and I agree fully with him on this account. I will dwell on the other side of the problem.
It is right that we need a rigorous academic system at IITK, because after all that is what has made our alma mater such a famed place to study. But I personally believe that it will be better, for all of us, if the academic pressure is eased slightly. I know of instances where instructors in courses have been quite unreasonable in their attitude towards students, especially those who are not-so-good in terms of students. There is a kind of discrimination, even if it is not quite direct, against the students with lower academic standing, which makes their life even tougher. I am not saying that the academics should be made less rigorous - i all for it. Just that it should be more reasonable, and more accommodating for all the students who enter the institute.
July 7, 2008 1:02 AM
Shefaly said...
Good post although as you can see from following this link below, the internet and other random concepts that are not so well-understood are often touted as 'explanations' of such trends.
Hopefully, IITK will not see the Welsh phenomenon. Read on:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/117749?from=rss
July 9, 2008 7:23 PM
Mayanand Jha said...
I graduated from IITK in 2005 and now pursuing my masters from University of Calgary in Canada. The academic pressure here on undergrads is more or less same as we had in IITK, but grading is really cool here. Undergrads here too have a very hectic life as I see many undergrads doing part time job also for supporting their education. I feel less senior-junior interaction can also be one of the reason for these rampant suicides. I witnessed a significant drop in senior-junior interaction at IITK. Ragging aka informal introduction was good means to have great interaction with seniors. I think ragging in IITK was pretty much within the limits but it was totally crushed by dosa(dean). The seniors I befriended during ragging period had been very supportive.
July 10, 2008 7:11 AM
ramu said...
david deangelo style !! how did you come across that book huh ..?? :D
October 13, 2008 9:29 AM
Nandz said...
Ramu: Picked it off Joel Spolsky's reading list. I pick up most of my non-fiction stuff from there.
October 13, 2008 12:07 PM
Anonymous said...
Dear sir whatever,
You know what!!!!!!!!!
sucide is really big matter and you are just compelling it.
Respect to you for being an IIT alumni, but a sucide for publicity is not a deal.
You don't know what the students are going through here."Everyone have different life and ofcourse different way of dealing with situations.So you don't have the right to call it some blah blah blah blah.
there is always a very big reason behind such a great step, which you would not even understand or even you don't give a damn to it.
And by this cheap blog you are just abusing those soul who faced the horrible aftermath........
p.s
a lot have changed since you graduated.
Friday, June 3, 2011
37 - 19th April 2008 - Yet Another Suicide at IITK
April 19th, 2008
Yesterday, when I was doing the final preparation for my presentation for CS727 course project, someone was tying rope around the fan in his room, and sometime after that, a good observation was made. The way suicides are shown in Bollywood movies, its pretty much true. Fan can in fact take the burden of a dead body. Oh, by the way, IITK is best at that. It is bearing (why bearing? you will know as this post progresses) burden of God knows how many suicides. At least it is 5th time in my stay here in IITK. Only 2 of my batch mates “could” do this daring task. I “know” some more tried, at least thought about it. Its not only daring but geeky as well to come up with new ideas. See, all 5 had different ways of doing this deed. What actually is more problematic for me is that this guy had to do this just before end semester exam. I remember screwing my 625 end semester exam because of similar incidence. And I have got 648 exam tomorrow. …. oh yeah, my 727 presentation went well. It was my 20th project at IITK.
Yes, I am still able to write this post in some funny way. Some of you know how these incidences effect me. Still want to control my thoughts on the way things are going. As far as this issue is concerned, I have been shifting from one view to another. I still do not know whom to blame. But I think I have come up with some lemmas and theorems which will surely help.
Warning: If you are one of those who think I shouldn’t write about it outside IITK, you can go to hell. I gave you 3 years to come up with a solution or at least clear the situation. You didn’t do that. You hence loose the right to stop me from writing this post. Yes I know people (15 people a day?) will read it, and I guess they should.
Note: I am mainly talking about suicides which are not purely because of personal reasons.
The first thing to notice is that the students who do these things are stupid. Yes, lot of IITians are stupid (It may sound ironical, but its not). Like a friend of mine pointed out, an F or a bad grade doesn’t ruin your life. I get bad grades, and I am going to Purdue University, which is like one of the best universities for CS. I know people who will graduate in 1-2 more years and still have job offers. Who reads your transcript when they offer you job/admission? Sometimes they do, but most of the times they don’t. And do you know that an F doesn’t affect your CPI (GPA)? Its hilarious, isn’t it. People with lot of Fs have CPI similar to mine. Then whats the fuzz about? Oh one more thing, whatever you score here in IITK, people outside IIT will always call you IITian, and will always listen to you like an SRK fan watches SRK movies.
Secondly, lot of parents are stupid as well. I have some friends who are “frustrated” ( not real frustrated, but frustrated in IITK slang) with the way parents pressurize them for academics. Parents have small idea of how things go in IITs and will still comment on students performance. I remember my father once talking to me about job etc. He was like I got to know that a CS grad from IITK gets like 2 million a year or something. Though in general average salary is like 0.8-0.9 million Rs. Thank God my parents are awesome, who never show any expectations from me except from hard work. And thank God they let me do whatever I wanted to do. I never got to listen comment about my results.
Thirdly, the academic system of IITK. The guy who committed suicide (he was in first year) belonged to a batch of around 500 students. In their first semester itself, in one course, 96 out of 500 students got an F. 20% of the class was dumb according to the instructor. Thats what an F means, right. In IITK, in a normal course, getting an F is a tough job. How can 20% students get an F? Just think who was wrong. IITK is the *best* institute of India. It is one of the best institutes in the world for UG studies. Best students clear its entrance exam. In first semester, these students perform the best. My first semester SPI tops my chart as well. A similar thing happened with a guy from my batch, who committed suicide last to last semester. The professor sent a mail naming students who might will get an F. The list had almost 50% students who were doing the course. I wonder what happened in that particular course. I mean, the students are doing good in other courses, but in one particular course students perform so bad? Who is wrong? I was discussing it with a professor in Happy Hours, and he said that it happens only once a semester. But thats not the point. Why does it happen at all? And don’t you think it will affect student morally and mentally? And don’t you know that it does effect his future in some sense. An F given by mistake in final semester can waste a students 1 whole year. Every now and then there is a course which acts like this. Of course it creates pressure. People have expectations from themselves. I myself expect somethings from myself. Thankfully I do not expect to get good grades. But I do expect to learn from a course. Similar, one guy may expect to get into MIT. And if something tries to come in between even when it doesn’t deserve to come in between, and if the person gets to know that he can not do anything about it, it creates problems.
So, yes. The major cause of these suicides is the student. I know its very harsh to say it so clearly, and believe me its hard for me as well to say it this clear, but this is the fact. Its student who couldn’t think reasonably and couldn’t cope with the pressure. Like a friend said, “apne neeche dekho, duniya hai puri. agar upar dekh ke depression hota hai, aur phir bhi neeche nahin dekh pate, inspite of such a counselling service to help, to unka uthna hi bhala hai”. You know your parents have wrong expectations from you. You know the system is wrong not you. And you know that you are better than most of those who couldn’t even get into IIT. Then where is the problem. And yes, academics or parents trigger the process. But again, why do you give a damn to it.
zakir
April 19th, 2008 at 03:39 | #1 Reply | Quote
i feel this mainly happens because we see studies as a burden rather than enjoying it .. i too feel the same ..
Yes, I am still able to write this post in some funny way. Some of you know how these incidences effect me. Still want to control my thoughts on the way things are going. As far as this issue is concerned, I have been shifting from one view to another. I still do not know whom to blame. But I think I have come up with some lemmas and theorems which will surely help.
Warning: If you are one of those who think I shouldn’t write about it outside IITK, you can go to hell. I gave you 3 years to come up with a solution or at least clear the situation. You didn’t do that. You hence loose the right to stop me from writing this post. Yes I know people (15 people a day?) will read it, and I guess they should.
Note: I am mainly talking about suicides which are not purely because of personal reasons.
The first thing to notice is that the students who do these things are stupid. Yes, lot of IITians are stupid (It may sound ironical, but its not). Like a friend of mine pointed out, an F or a bad grade doesn’t ruin your life. I get bad grades, and I am going to Purdue University, which is like one of the best universities for CS. I know people who will graduate in 1-2 more years and still have job offers. Who reads your transcript when they offer you job/admission? Sometimes they do, but most of the times they don’t. And do you know that an F doesn’t affect your CPI (GPA)? Its hilarious, isn’t it. People with lot of Fs have CPI similar to mine. Then whats the fuzz about? Oh one more thing, whatever you score here in IITK, people outside IIT will always call you IITian, and will always listen to you like an SRK fan watches SRK movies.
Secondly, lot of parents are stupid as well. I have some friends who are “frustrated” ( not real frustrated, but frustrated in IITK slang) with the way parents pressurize them for academics. Parents have small idea of how things go in IITs and will still comment on students performance. I remember my father once talking to me about job etc. He was like I got to know that a CS grad from IITK gets like 2 million a year or something. Though in general average salary is like 0.8-0.9 million Rs. Thank God my parents are awesome, who never show any expectations from me except from hard work. And thank God they let me do whatever I wanted to do. I never got to listen comment about my results.
Thirdly, the academic system of IITK. The guy who committed suicide (he was in first year) belonged to a batch of around 500 students. In their first semester itself, in one course, 96 out of 500 students got an F. 20% of the class was dumb according to the instructor. Thats what an F means, right. In IITK, in a normal course, getting an F is a tough job. How can 20% students get an F? Just think who was wrong. IITK is the *best* institute of India. It is one of the best institutes in the world for UG studies. Best students clear its entrance exam. In first semester, these students perform the best. My first semester SPI tops my chart as well. A similar thing happened with a guy from my batch, who committed suicide last to last semester. The professor sent a mail naming students who might will get an F. The list had almost 50% students who were doing the course. I wonder what happened in that particular course. I mean, the students are doing good in other courses, but in one particular course students perform so bad? Who is wrong? I was discussing it with a professor in Happy Hours, and he said that it happens only once a semester. But thats not the point. Why does it happen at all? And don’t you think it will affect student morally and mentally? And don’t you know that it does effect his future in some sense. An F given by mistake in final semester can waste a students 1 whole year. Every now and then there is a course which acts like this. Of course it creates pressure. People have expectations from themselves. I myself expect somethings from myself. Thankfully I do not expect to get good grades. But I do expect to learn from a course. Similar, one guy may expect to get into MIT. And if something tries to come in between even when it doesn’t deserve to come in between, and if the person gets to know that he can not do anything about it, it creates problems.
So, yes. The major cause of these suicides is the student. I know its very harsh to say it so clearly, and believe me its hard for me as well to say it this clear, but this is the fact. Its student who couldn’t think reasonably and couldn’t cope with the pressure. Like a friend said, “apne neeche dekho, duniya hai puri. agar upar dekh ke depression hota hai, aur phir bhi neeche nahin dekh pate, inspite of such a counselling service to help, to unka uthna hi bhala hai”. You know your parents have wrong expectations from you. You know the system is wrong not you. And you know that you are better than most of those who couldn’t even get into IIT. Then where is the problem. And yes, academics or parents trigger the process. But again, why do you give a damn to it.
zakir
April 19th, 2008 at 03:39 | #1 Reply | Quote
i feel this mainly happens because we see studies as a burden rather than enjoying it .. i too feel the same ..
rohitj
April 19th, 2008 at 05:28 | #2 Reply | Quote
When I am forced to take TA201, I have to feel it as “burden” and no fun. Secondly, when I get to interact with professors who judge be based on my CPI, I have to feel burden.
chachi
April 19th, 2008 at 11:11 | #3 Reply | Quote
Well, let me take a black-box view of the problem. Students took JEE and got distributed fairly evenly among all IITs. IITK has 5 suicides in 3 years and rest have none(?). On the face of it, there is a problem with IITK, which has surfaced in the last 3 years.
On the other hand, one could argue like this. The pressure is immense, in all IITs. Suicides are one-off cases. At least the first one was. After that, probably the IITK student always thinks that there’s an easy escape called death. Whenever something really over the top comes up, suicide becomes a realistic option. Because there have been people who have done it. So as I see it, this problem would, unfortunately, only escalate now.
IITs are not as good as they’re made out to be. They’re more like a common place where a large no. of good students flock in, go through four years of torture, and go out and do well in the world which they’d have done anyway, making others believe that IITs are good.
As I have said earlier ( http://grunged.kuro-katana.net/blog/2008/03/10/no-comments/ ), the students who come here are/become mediocre by way of their goals in life. You said that the students contemplating suicide should realise that it’s not the end of the world. But how do you expect them to suppose so, when they’ve lost their self-belief? During four years, IITK takes away everything from you and stamps a brand value in the end. And I don’t mean the administration, I mean the whole community. I’d much rather give JEE and have an AIR, and skip the four years I have wasted here.
I won’t like to blame the student – he could be me or you, only more unfortunate.
I don’t have the requisite mental faculty to dig out the reasons behind these suicides, but the very fundamental issues I’d look into are:
1) Acads ARE tough at IITK. Very Tough. Too Tough.
2) Got to have the “less is more” approach. Teach more concepts/in-depth in a smaller field rather than teach many things in a superficial way. The minute you do that, you’re digging the grave of the student’s thinking abilities. Since the student has too many things to think to properly understand whatever’s being taught, he gets by just by mugging/cheating. Very quickly, the student who had been thinking until now, becomes a rote-machine. On the other hand, if a student actually knows the concepts, it gives him confidence/self-belief, and he’d learn the broad things as and when required. That should be a part of experiencial learning, rather than curriculum. A classic example is that if a student knows programming in one language, he can program in any language. But if he knows the syntax etc of many languages, but is not very good in programming, he’d never be a good programmer.
3) Attitude of students towards studies has to change. They must realise that it is what they’ve chosen for a living and it should be something they should enjoy. If it wasn’t their choice or their first choice, too bad. But at least let others feel good about acads.
4) Interaction with seniors : this a very delicate point. Ragging never helped, it only damages and spreads the IITK germ quickly among the new students. It’s like a crash-course in losing your self-belief, and becoming mediocre. Interaction of 1st year students with 2nd year would only hamper the progress of 1st yearites, becuase the 2nd-year students aren’t serious enough. By the middle of the 6th sem, things start to dawn upon the students and they see their mistakes. But would they share these with the juniors, or would they still be happy to only take pleasure by ragging them? It’s very difficult to tell, and I don’t see anyone sharing valuable tips with juniors unless in a more formal setting.
My proposal – have formal “counselling” sessions of first yearites with fourth yearites. They are the ones that the first yearites look up to, and would listen to. Sensitize them about the difficulties they’re going to face and the mistakes they’d make, and about the good things that are there at IITK, in acads, and in the world after. This should nip the problem in the bud, i.e., don’t let the student become damaged enough to feel it’s all worthless.
Puru
April 19th, 2008 at 13:31 | #4 Reply | Quote
I havent given this issue much thought but whenever I sit down to think about it – the first thing that comes to my mind is that most of us (including myself sometimes) take things more seriously than they actually should. If each and every course we take starts becoming a matter of life and death then I dont see any easy way out.
Moreover I think in light of these recent events, the IITK community should start taking the concept of peer-group-counselling seriously. The people who are most close to a student – his/her wingmates, close friends, classmates – are the best people to identify and help him/her out if he/she is in distress. Many people testified to the fact that the recently deceased student (God bless his soul) was depressed from repeated failures in his courses. (Incidently the newspapers were inaccurate in this respect. Some reported him failing in Ad-Flu-Mech and such courses which are out of bounds for a 1st yearite.) In such cases the immediate peer group should keep a strict vigil on the student monitoring his (it is tiresome to keep writing his/her so I am going to use the male pronominal only) progress in his courses and be extra cautious if he/she feels depressed. Often a suicidal person craves to be stopped – but unfortunately there is no one to stop him.
There are myraid reasons why a person even after clearing the challenging hurdle that is the JEE may fail to perform well at an IIT. In many cases it seems some sort of a disillusionment sets in where a student does not feel enthused toward academic acheivement anymore. I dont know what could lead to this. In other cases academic achievement might not have been what the student was looking for in the first place when he chose to go through JEE. He might have had different aspirations – and outperforming his classmates might not have been one of them.
One needs to identify the spectrum of students that enter the IITs. All dont come here with the same goal in mind and the initial phases of “informal counselling” complicates things further.
In my first night at this place I was told by a senior with much conviction that the key to success at this dump is not to listen to an old hag belch his life-long experiences in an air conditioned room (aka course lectures) but to study on ones own. Now this might be possible for some but not for everybody. Turns out that my “counsellor” himself spent the whole summer making up for 3 courses in which his self study could not do him much good. I wonder if listening to those three old hags might have been helpful.
The main point I am trying to arrive at is that we have to know our students better – why have they come here – what do they expect to do and what they would not like to be made to do – and other such questions. Only then can we figure out why students in almost all stages of completion of their stay here (fresher, sophomore, senior, even PhD) have chosen to end their lives.
rohitj
April 19th, 2008 at 14:28 | #5 Reply | Quote
@chachi : My point is that the main cause is not academic system. Yes system is wrong. System is screwed like anything, but thats not the main cause. The main cause is that students are taking it seriously. They don’t realize that there are good side of system as well. They don’t understand that they can actually stand in front of the system. They don’t think much about what they can do, and what can be done. Rather they do not know what they expect from themselves. I have sort of pointed out some feasible ways to make things better. I hope these will make sense. Please read my recent post.
@Puru : I pretty much agree with you. Though I wonder how much peers can help in this regard. at the end of the semester, everyone is busy with acads. A lot have anxiety higher than normal situation. At such situation, who will take care of whom? Everyone has his own problems.
chachi
April 19th, 2008 at 15:34 | #6 Reply | Quote
Well, I am saying that academic load IS a major cause, but one can’t do much about it. There would be that much load in a four year BTech course. System is not very wrong or screwed up, it is tough. It thus becomes the base cause of the tensions in the student’s life. Failure and the fear of failure. After this whatever you said is probably true
Soham
April 19th, 2008 at 15:44 | #7 Reply | Quote
“What actually is more problematic for me is that this guy had to do this just before end semester exam.” – This just shows what sort of a guy you are. Man – you are a real jerk.
rohitj
April 19th, 2008 at 16:07 | #8 Reply | Quote
@chachi : hmm, I would put it in a different way. We take system as tough. It was tougher 5 years back. But people didn’t consider it as that tough. But yes, the system is still tough enough to think freely and rationally.
@soham : …. I hope what you said was a joke. And I hope you read the blog properly, because if you have you will probably observe that I am pretty much concerned about this issue, and probably thats the reason I said I screwed some of my exams as well. Also, I mentioned that these incidences effect me a lot. I was trying to be sarcastic here. If it wasn’t clear, my sincere apologizes.
shyam
May 10th, 2009 at 18:39 | #9 Reply | Quote
It is non sense to join IIT.Living life is important.Get some girl to fuck him who wants to commit suicide and make him to learn bad habbits.I did the same and now i am running behind such things and dont care such things in IIT.I am also IITian.
When I am forced to take TA201, I have to feel it as “burden” and no fun. Secondly, when I get to interact with professors who judge be based on my CPI, I have to feel burden.
chachi
April 19th, 2008 at 11:11 | #3 Reply | Quote
Well, let me take a black-box view of the problem. Students took JEE and got distributed fairly evenly among all IITs. IITK has 5 suicides in 3 years and rest have none(?). On the face of it, there is a problem with IITK, which has surfaced in the last 3 years.
On the other hand, one could argue like this. The pressure is immense, in all IITs. Suicides are one-off cases. At least the first one was. After that, probably the IITK student always thinks that there’s an easy escape called death. Whenever something really over the top comes up, suicide becomes a realistic option. Because there have been people who have done it. So as I see it, this problem would, unfortunately, only escalate now.
IITs are not as good as they’re made out to be. They’re more like a common place where a large no. of good students flock in, go through four years of torture, and go out and do well in the world which they’d have done anyway, making others believe that IITs are good.
As I have said earlier ( http://grunged.kuro-katana.net/blog/2008/03/10/no-comments/ ), the students who come here are/become mediocre by way of their goals in life. You said that the students contemplating suicide should realise that it’s not the end of the world. But how do you expect them to suppose so, when they’ve lost their self-belief? During four years, IITK takes away everything from you and stamps a brand value in the end. And I don’t mean the administration, I mean the whole community. I’d much rather give JEE and have an AIR, and skip the four years I have wasted here.
I won’t like to blame the student – he could be me or you, only more unfortunate.
I don’t have the requisite mental faculty to dig out the reasons behind these suicides, but the very fundamental issues I’d look into are:
1) Acads ARE tough at IITK. Very Tough. Too Tough.
2) Got to have the “less is more” approach. Teach more concepts/in-depth in a smaller field rather than teach many things in a superficial way. The minute you do that, you’re digging the grave of the student’s thinking abilities. Since the student has too many things to think to properly understand whatever’s being taught, he gets by just by mugging/cheating. Very quickly, the student who had been thinking until now, becomes a rote-machine. On the other hand, if a student actually knows the concepts, it gives him confidence/self-belief, and he’d learn the broad things as and when required. That should be a part of experiencial learning, rather than curriculum. A classic example is that if a student knows programming in one language, he can program in any language. But if he knows the syntax etc of many languages, but is not very good in programming, he’d never be a good programmer.
3) Attitude of students towards studies has to change. They must realise that it is what they’ve chosen for a living and it should be something they should enjoy. If it wasn’t their choice or their first choice, too bad. But at least let others feel good about acads.
4) Interaction with seniors : this a very delicate point. Ragging never helped, it only damages and spreads the IITK germ quickly among the new students. It’s like a crash-course in losing your self-belief, and becoming mediocre. Interaction of 1st year students with 2nd year would only hamper the progress of 1st yearites, becuase the 2nd-year students aren’t serious enough. By the middle of the 6th sem, things start to dawn upon the students and they see their mistakes. But would they share these with the juniors, or would they still be happy to only take pleasure by ragging them? It’s very difficult to tell, and I don’t see anyone sharing valuable tips with juniors unless in a more formal setting.
My proposal – have formal “counselling” sessions of first yearites with fourth yearites. They are the ones that the first yearites look up to, and would listen to. Sensitize them about the difficulties they’re going to face and the mistakes they’d make, and about the good things that are there at IITK, in acads, and in the world after. This should nip the problem in the bud, i.e., don’t let the student become damaged enough to feel it’s all worthless.
Puru
April 19th, 2008 at 13:31 | #4 Reply | Quote
I havent given this issue much thought but whenever I sit down to think about it – the first thing that comes to my mind is that most of us (including myself sometimes) take things more seriously than they actually should. If each and every course we take starts becoming a matter of life and death then I dont see any easy way out.
Moreover I think in light of these recent events, the IITK community should start taking the concept of peer-group-counselling seriously. The people who are most close to a student – his/her wingmates, close friends, classmates – are the best people to identify and help him/her out if he/she is in distress. Many people testified to the fact that the recently deceased student (God bless his soul) was depressed from repeated failures in his courses. (Incidently the newspapers were inaccurate in this respect. Some reported him failing in Ad-Flu-Mech and such courses which are out of bounds for a 1st yearite.) In such cases the immediate peer group should keep a strict vigil on the student monitoring his (it is tiresome to keep writing his/her so I am going to use the male pronominal only) progress in his courses and be extra cautious if he/she feels depressed. Often a suicidal person craves to be stopped – but unfortunately there is no one to stop him.
There are myraid reasons why a person even after clearing the challenging hurdle that is the JEE may fail to perform well at an IIT. In many cases it seems some sort of a disillusionment sets in where a student does not feel enthused toward academic acheivement anymore. I dont know what could lead to this. In other cases academic achievement might not have been what the student was looking for in the first place when he chose to go through JEE. He might have had different aspirations – and outperforming his classmates might not have been one of them.
One needs to identify the spectrum of students that enter the IITs. All dont come here with the same goal in mind and the initial phases of “informal counselling” complicates things further.
In my first night at this place I was told by a senior with much conviction that the key to success at this dump is not to listen to an old hag belch his life-long experiences in an air conditioned room (aka course lectures) but to study on ones own. Now this might be possible for some but not for everybody. Turns out that my “counsellor” himself spent the whole summer making up for 3 courses in which his self study could not do him much good. I wonder if listening to those three old hags might have been helpful.
The main point I am trying to arrive at is that we have to know our students better – why have they come here – what do they expect to do and what they would not like to be made to do – and other such questions. Only then can we figure out why students in almost all stages of completion of their stay here (fresher, sophomore, senior, even PhD) have chosen to end their lives.
rohitj
April 19th, 2008 at 14:28 | #5 Reply | Quote
@chachi : My point is that the main cause is not academic system. Yes system is wrong. System is screwed like anything, but thats not the main cause. The main cause is that students are taking it seriously. They don’t realize that there are good side of system as well. They don’t understand that they can actually stand in front of the system. They don’t think much about what they can do, and what can be done. Rather they do not know what they expect from themselves. I have sort of pointed out some feasible ways to make things better. I hope these will make sense. Please read my recent post.
@Puru : I pretty much agree with you. Though I wonder how much peers can help in this regard. at the end of the semester, everyone is busy with acads. A lot have anxiety higher than normal situation. At such situation, who will take care of whom? Everyone has his own problems.
chachi
April 19th, 2008 at 15:34 | #6 Reply | Quote
Well, I am saying that academic load IS a major cause, but one can’t do much about it. There would be that much load in a four year BTech course. System is not very wrong or screwed up, it is tough. It thus becomes the base cause of the tensions in the student’s life. Failure and the fear of failure. After this whatever you said is probably true
Soham
April 19th, 2008 at 15:44 | #7 Reply | Quote
“What actually is more problematic for me is that this guy had to do this just before end semester exam.” – This just shows what sort of a guy you are. Man – you are a real jerk.
rohitj
April 19th, 2008 at 16:07 | #8 Reply | Quote
@chachi : hmm, I would put it in a different way. We take system as tough. It was tougher 5 years back. But people didn’t consider it as that tough. But yes, the system is still tough enough to think freely and rationally.
@soham : …. I hope what you said was a joke. And I hope you read the blog properly, because if you have you will probably observe that I am pretty much concerned about this issue, and probably thats the reason I said I screwed some of my exams as well. Also, I mentioned that these incidences effect me a lot. I was trying to be sarcastic here. If it wasn’t clear, my sincere apologizes.
shyam
May 10th, 2009 at 18:39 | #9 Reply | Quote
It is non sense to join IIT.Living life is important.Get some girl to fuck him who wants to commit suicide and make him to learn bad habbits.I did the same and now i am running behind such things and dont care such things in IIT.I am also IITian.
35 -22nd Feb 2008 - STATE OF DISTRESS- Times of India e Paper
Publication: The Times Of India Mumbai;
Date: Feb 22, 2008;
Section: Times City; Page: 5
STATE OF DISTRESS
Academic Strain Shows: 11.5% Of All Student Suicides In Maharashtra Are From Mumbai
Anahita Mukherji | TNN
Mumbai: Given that the pressure to perform starts before kindergarten and dogs students all though their academic life, it may come as no surprise that 11.45% of all student suicides in Maharashtra during 2006 were from Mumbai, according to the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics. In fact, the figures for Mumbai match those for Pune, Nashik and Nagpur put together.
STATE OF DISTRESS
Academic Strain Shows: 11.5% Of All Student Suicides In Maharashtra Are From Mumbai
Anahita Mukherji | TNN
Mumbai: Given that the pressure to perform starts before kindergarten and dogs students all though their academic life, it may come as no surprise that 11.45% of all student suicides in Maharashtra during 2006 were from Mumbai, according to the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics. In fact, the figures for Mumbai match those for Pune, Nashik and Nagpur put together.
While pressure to excel has reached monstrous proportions in cities like Mumbai, academic pressure is far less in smaller cities and rural areas, said experts. “I have yet to come across a student in a village who is ashamed to come home and say he’s failed an exam. In rural areas, children who fail are often allowed to take a break and work for a year, and then get back to studies,’’ says Nilesh Nimkar, director, Quality Education Support Trust, in Thane’s Wada block. Nimkar, who has worked extensively with marginalised tribal children in Thane, is also a curriculum consultant for some of Mumbai’s better-known schools. “When we observed some of the city kids in Mumbai under immense strain and advised parents to send them for counselling, parents were upset at the thought because they felt counselling was only for retarded kids,’’ he adds.
While exams may not be the sole reason for student suicides, they are definitely a major cause. For instance, Srikant Mallapallu, a 21-year-old who hung himself in his hostel room in IIT Powai in December 2006, left behind a suicide note where he said he could not make it because of the backlog of exams that he had to clear.
Another suicide victim that year was DEd student Rashmi Kawande, a quiet and withdrawn girl. Teachers, though unsure of the cause of suicide, pin it down to homesickness and hostel life.
According to teachers, the strain on girls who are academically bright but are being pressured to get married also results in suicide. For instance, teachers at a Mumbai polytechnic were stunned when a bright young girl ended her life a day before her exams. “Kya pata exam likhoongi ya nahin,’’ she told a teacher, a day before her paper when she was asked to copy down the time-table. “I got a call next morning informing me that she had killed herself,’’ said her teacher. It was later discovered that she was under pressure to get married.
Maharashtra also has the dubious distinction of being the state with the second highest incidence of student suicides across the country, beaten only by West Bengal.
With crumbling support systems and the lack of a full-fledged counselling centre in most schools—including some reputed institutions—there are very few mechanisms at hand to spot a child who may be in distress. “Most schools do a shoddy job of counselling. I have visited some wellknown CBSE schools who don’t feel the need to have a counselling setup,’’ says Chandni Parekh, a psychologist.
While exams may not be the sole reason for student suicides, they are definitely a major cause. For instance, Srikant Mallapallu, a 21-year-old who hung himself in his hostel room in IIT Powai in December 2006, left behind a suicide note where he said he could not make it because of the backlog of exams that he had to clear.
Another suicide victim that year was DEd student Rashmi Kawande, a quiet and withdrawn girl. Teachers, though unsure of the cause of suicide, pin it down to homesickness and hostel life.
According to teachers, the strain on girls who are academically bright but are being pressured to get married also results in suicide. For instance, teachers at a Mumbai polytechnic were stunned when a bright young girl ended her life a day before her exams. “Kya pata exam likhoongi ya nahin,’’ she told a teacher, a day before her paper when she was asked to copy down the time-table. “I got a call next morning informing me that she had killed herself,’’ said her teacher. It was later discovered that she was under pressure to get married.
Maharashtra also has the dubious distinction of being the state with the second highest incidence of student suicides across the country, beaten only by West Bengal.
With crumbling support systems and the lack of a full-fledged counselling centre in most schools—including some reputed institutions—there are very few mechanisms at hand to spot a child who may be in distress. “Most schools do a shoddy job of counselling. I have visited some wellknown CBSE schools who don’t feel the need to have a counselling setup,’’ says Chandni Parekh, a psychologist.
24 - 17th April 2007 – dejavu -Source - IITB Alumni
'Any unstable chemical product is useless, till the time it becomes a stable product'. It's a routine lecture taking place in the chemical engineering department of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). But the words 'unstable' and 'useless' keep drumming in Dhananjay's head.
With the spate of suicides on its campus, it could well be a scene playing in the mind of a troubled student. Only, it's all happening on screen as Director Anshul Singhal's (B.Tech., Chemical, 2006) film Deja Vu deals with an issue that's simmering on IIT campuses.
The protagonist of Deja Vu, Dhananjay, is desperately seeking stability in the exam-riddled, career-concentrated four years at IIT-Bombay. He keeps stumbling, the tests are stressful and his failure at getting a girlfriend are all taking their toll.
With Singhal being an IIT passout himself, Deja Vu is an insider's view. But as the young director puts it—the film is of the IITians, by the IITians, but not necessarily only for them.
"There was a sense of urgency to portray what I felt about the suicides that were shaking the IITs. We have tried to show the kind of stress and pressures any IIT student faces here, but the way he copes with the problems can actually be universally emulated,"said Singhal, a chemical engineer from IIT-B, after the film was premiered at the Powai
campus on Saturday, 14th April 2007.
Singhal's main lead, Dhananjay, is played by an undergraduate IIT-B student, Ankur Gulati, from the aerospace engineering department.
So impressed was Bollywood screenplay writer and actor Ranjit Kapoor (of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Na fame) with the film that he said after the premiere, "With a little bit of trimming, the film can actually be sent to Cannes. I thought I would view Deja Vu a bit patronisingly, but this film has taught me a thing or two."
The young filmmakers are planning to send it to various national and international film
fests with the active support of IIT.
IIT-B Director, Ashok Misra, stated, "I hope we've seen the last of suicides at IIT. The film has the ability to touch students as it talks in their language."Despite the dark theme, the film captures the campus humour that keeps the viewer engaged throughout.
Professor T Kundu of IIT-B who backed Singhal's efforts to make a full-fledged film on the suicide issue, "I am pleasantly surprised that despite being complete amateurs, the Deja Vu team has done exceptionally well,"said Kundu, whose friendly character also
finds a place in the film.
IIT spokesperson Aruna Thosar Dixit added that they planned to send the film to other IITs as well as various other colleges where students face similar problems.
There were two suicides (one in Kanpur and another in IIT-Bombay) even while the film was being made. This gave the team an even more compelling purpose, said Singhal.
He added that an IITian start-up of Jikku Abraham handled the production quite efficiently. Singhal says he learned the ropes of editing from friend Kapil Limbad, while the background score was done by Pushpendra Halped. The one-hour-45-minute film, which cost Rs 2.2 lakh, was funded by IIT-B and took one year to be completed.
(This article appeared in the Times of India dated 17 Apr, 2007)
With the spate of suicides on its campus, it could well be a scene playing in the mind of a troubled student. Only, it's all happening on screen as Director Anshul Singhal's (B.Tech., Chemical, 2006) film Deja Vu deals with an issue that's simmering on IIT campuses.
The protagonist of Deja Vu, Dhananjay, is desperately seeking stability in the exam-riddled, career-concentrated four years at IIT-Bombay. He keeps stumbling, the tests are stressful and his failure at getting a girlfriend are all taking their toll.
With Singhal being an IIT passout himself, Deja Vu is an insider's view. But as the young director puts it—the film is of the IITians, by the IITians, but not necessarily only for them.
"There was a sense of urgency to portray what I felt about the suicides that were shaking the IITs. We have tried to show the kind of stress and pressures any IIT student faces here, but the way he copes with the problems can actually be universally emulated,"said Singhal, a chemical engineer from IIT-B, after the film was premiered at the Powai
campus on Saturday, 14th April 2007.
Singhal's main lead, Dhananjay, is played by an undergraduate IIT-B student, Ankur Gulati, from the aerospace engineering department.
So impressed was Bollywood screenplay writer and actor Ranjit Kapoor (of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Na fame) with the film that he said after the premiere, "With a little bit of trimming, the film can actually be sent to Cannes. I thought I would view Deja Vu a bit patronisingly, but this film has taught me a thing or two."
The young filmmakers are planning to send it to various national and international film
fests with the active support of IIT.
IIT-B Director, Ashok Misra, stated, "I hope we've seen the last of suicides at IIT. The film has the ability to touch students as it talks in their language."Despite the dark theme, the film captures the campus humour that keeps the viewer engaged throughout.
Professor T Kundu of IIT-B who backed Singhal's efforts to make a full-fledged film on the suicide issue, "I am pleasantly surprised that despite being complete amateurs, the Deja Vu team has done exceptionally well,"said Kundu, whose friendly character also
finds a place in the film.
IIT spokesperson Aruna Thosar Dixit added that they planned to send the film to other IITs as well as various other colleges where students face similar problems.
There were two suicides (one in Kanpur and another in IIT-Bombay) even while the film was being made. This gave the team an even more compelling purpose, said Singhal.
He added that an IITian start-up of Jikku Abraham handled the production quite efficiently. Singhal says he learned the ropes of editing from friend Kapil Limbad, while the background score was done by Pushpendra Halped. The one-hour-45-minute film, which cost Rs 2.2 lakh, was funded by IIT-B and took one year to be completed.
(This article appeared in the Times of India dated 17 Apr, 2007)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
16 - 17th May 2006 - The tyranny of Exams by Sandeep Pandey - Indian Express
The tyranny of examinations
Sandeep Pandey
Posted online: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 0000 hrs
There certainly are more non-intrusive ways of finding out how much a student knows
Recently IIT Kanpur (IIT-K) witnessed its second student suicide in the past six months. Shailesh Sharma could not face the ignominy of failing in two courses and hanged himself on May 4. Earlier, Swapnil Dharaskar ended his life on November 30. It is quite well-known that to get into the IITs and survive a degree course there involves an excruciating,
almost inhumane, process. These suicides, the outrage among students and the defence of the IIT examination system by the faculty prompt me to narrate my experience with experimenting with the IIT Kanpur examination
system as a faculty member in ’93. The only course that I independently taught at IIT during my three-semester stay there was Control Systems for the final year Mechanical Engineering students.
Being a Gandhian by orientation, I firmly believe that examinations should be abolished. As a member of the Central Advisory Board on Education of the present government I have also raised the question in Delhi about the link between education and examinations. Personally I
have never understood why — if the purpose of education is to acquire knowledge — it is necessary to pass or fail students by subjecting them to the examination process. I told my students that, as professor, my job would not be considered complete until I was able to make each of my
students understand the subject I was teaching.
Examinations were a bureaucratic procedure which should not have anything to do with a professor. If a student failed an examination, the failure must be considered that of the professor and not that of a student. Although the student needs to put in efforts, it is for the professor to ensure that he comprehends what is being taught. If a student is lagging behind, or not doing well in a particular subject, it is the responsibility of the professor to ensure that the student
catches up. Ideally, I would have liked to avoid examinations. But since I had to turn in a list of grades at the end of the semester, I came up with what I thought was the best possible compromise. I told my students that they would get unlimited chances to appear in an examination — which was not a written one — and the process will be complete only when
they felt that they had put in their best performance.
The idea was to make students learn the subject at their own pace. Since I wanted my students to learn the subject, I decided to spend about 15 minutes with each to make them feel comfortable. If I saw that they had not put in their best, I would advise them to take the examination again. Sometimes the request for a repeat examination would come from them. Initially, I was apprehensive about the process going on
indefinitely for some. But to my surprise no student took more than three chances. Four students came to me and told me that they were not interested in the subject. Since it was likely that they were interested in other subjects and wanted to spend more time on them, I decided to pass them with a ‘C’ grade. The rest got ‘A’s and ‘B’s.
Professor S.G. Dhande, the present director of IIT-K, and then head of Mechanical Engineering decided to discuss my experiment with the examination system at the weekly departmental meeting. There was a furore. Most faculty members were aghast that I could adopt such a “subjective” way of grading. I was asked how would I keep a proof of the
performance if any student decided to challenge the grade awarded. But I explained that nobody could have any complaints in my system, because they had already put in their best. There were only a handful of younger faculty members who supported me, quoting the tradition of academic autonomy at IIT-K. I was told by senior faculty members that I should not repeat my experiment and must conduct a written examination the next time. I was of course not happy with this and revolted by conducting the next examination as a written one, but allowing unlimited time and a five-minute consultation mid-way for those who got stuck somewhere. The students had no complaints. I think some enjoyed the process as well as subject and I was happy to have conducted a humane examination.
But I remain a strong advocate of delinking the learning process from examinations. There are more non-intrusive ways of finding out how much a student knows if the purpose of examinations is only to evaluate the student. And when it comes to applying for jobs, employers would in any case conduct their own tests. People have already started thinking about it. Some of the most progressive schools considered are those which de-emphasise competition and concentrate on the development of humane values. If we want our students to become more sensitive to themselves and fellow human beings we must have an education system that does not destroy their sense of self-worth.
____________________________________
The writer did his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Magsaysay awardee
Sandeep Pandey
Posted online: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 0000 hrs
There certainly are more non-intrusive ways of finding out how much a student knows
Recently IIT Kanpur (IIT-K) witnessed its second student suicide in the past six months. Shailesh Sharma could not face the ignominy of failing in two courses and hanged himself on May 4. Earlier, Swapnil Dharaskar ended his life on November 30. It is quite well-known that to get into the IITs and survive a degree course there involves an excruciating,
almost inhumane, process. These suicides, the outrage among students and the defence of the IIT examination system by the faculty prompt me to narrate my experience with experimenting with the IIT Kanpur examination
system as a faculty member in ’93. The only course that I independently taught at IIT during my three-semester stay there was Control Systems for the final year Mechanical Engineering students.
Being a Gandhian by orientation, I firmly believe that examinations should be abolished. As a member of the Central Advisory Board on Education of the present government I have also raised the question in Delhi about the link between education and examinations. Personally I
have never understood why — if the purpose of education is to acquire knowledge — it is necessary to pass or fail students by subjecting them to the examination process. I told my students that, as professor, my job would not be considered complete until I was able to make each of my
students understand the subject I was teaching.
Examinations were a bureaucratic procedure which should not have anything to do with a professor. If a student failed an examination, the failure must be considered that of the professor and not that of a student. Although the student needs to put in efforts, it is for the professor to ensure that he comprehends what is being taught. If a student is lagging behind, or not doing well in a particular subject, it is the responsibility of the professor to ensure that the student
catches up. Ideally, I would have liked to avoid examinations. But since I had to turn in a list of grades at the end of the semester, I came up with what I thought was the best possible compromise. I told my students that they would get unlimited chances to appear in an examination — which was not a written one — and the process will be complete only when
they felt that they had put in their best performance.
The idea was to make students learn the subject at their own pace. Since I wanted my students to learn the subject, I decided to spend about 15 minutes with each to make them feel comfortable. If I saw that they had not put in their best, I would advise them to take the examination again. Sometimes the request for a repeat examination would come from them. Initially, I was apprehensive about the process going on
indefinitely for some. But to my surprise no student took more than three chances. Four students came to me and told me that they were not interested in the subject. Since it was likely that they were interested in other subjects and wanted to spend more time on them, I decided to pass them with a ‘C’ grade. The rest got ‘A’s and ‘B’s.
Professor S.G. Dhande, the present director of IIT-K, and then head of Mechanical Engineering decided to discuss my experiment with the examination system at the weekly departmental meeting. There was a furore. Most faculty members were aghast that I could adopt such a “subjective” way of grading. I was asked how would I keep a proof of the
performance if any student decided to challenge the grade awarded. But I explained that nobody could have any complaints in my system, because they had already put in their best. There were only a handful of younger faculty members who supported me, quoting the tradition of academic autonomy at IIT-K. I was told by senior faculty members that I should not repeat my experiment and must conduct a written examination the next time. I was of course not happy with this and revolted by conducting the next examination as a written one, but allowing unlimited time and a five-minute consultation mid-way for those who got stuck somewhere. The students had no complaints. I think some enjoyed the process as well as subject and I was happy to have conducted a humane examination.
But I remain a strong advocate of delinking the learning process from examinations. There are more non-intrusive ways of finding out how much a student knows if the purpose of examinations is only to evaluate the student. And when it comes to applying for jobs, employers would in any case conduct their own tests. People have already started thinking about it. Some of the most progressive schools considered are those which de-emphasise competition and concentrate on the development of humane values. If we want our students to become more sensitive to themselves and fellow human beings we must have an education system that does not destroy their sense of self-worth.
____________________________________
The writer did his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Magsaysay awardee
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