I have a Solution that will reduce pressure on IIT aspirants but do not know how to get this across to HRD Minister of India. Suggestions are welcome. - Ram Krishnaswamy

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

155 - State students not creative enough for IIT standards - The Hindu



State students not creative enough for IIT standards

R. Ravikanth Reddy


Students are trained to crack the JEE, but education at IITs emphasises on creative work and capability to learn new things fast. Unfortunately, these students are poor on both counts

The joy of reaching their dream destination is turning out to be a short-lived one, apparently due to a faulty training system that only prepares students to enter the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

The suicide of an IIT Kanpur student, Vaditya Nehru, has once again brought to fore the pressure on State students to perform at the IITs. It has also exposed the mismatch of quality of training they get at the Intermediate level and the stringent academic standards maintained at the institutes.

The rote mode of learning and getting trained to crack the IIT-JEE are the banes, apart from the inability to handle the pressure in such a competitive atmosphere.

Nehru, who hails from Miryalaguda, allegedly took the extreme step unable to match the academic standards. Last year, L. Nitin Kumar Reddy of Chittoor committed suicide in IIT Madras for similar reasons.

There have been quite a few earlier too, apart from those who have made unsuccessful attempts. In most cases, academic pressure was the main reason.
“In IITs they are exposed to a totally different academic style, unlike what they learn in junior colleges, and unfortunately, they are not prepared well,” says R.V. Raja Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of RGUKT, who was a faculty at IIT Kharagpur earlier. “Their conceptual understanding is less. They get admissions due to the grinding they go through for the entrance exam.”

Interestingly, some professors from Andhra Pradesh working in IITs conducted an internal study to pinpoint the lacunae among Telugu students. Their study found that most of them lack creative skills or they don’t adapt to the new system easily. Education at IITs emphasises on creative work and capability to learn new things fast. Unfortunately, they are poor on both counts.

A teacher says that IITians from the State can be divided into three groups. The first one constituting around 25 per cent are exceptionally good while the second group constituting about another 40 per cent work hard to overcome their inherent deficiencies. The problem is with the remaining 35 per cent who fail to rise up to the IIT standards.

“The pressure is on two counts – to perform according to their JEE rank status, and perform after adapting to a totally different academic style competing with the best minds from different parts of the country. Majority of our students lack that competitiveness,” says an IIT trainer. “Andhra Pradesh accounts for nearly 18 per cent of all successful IIT aspirants in the country, thanks to the aggression of the corporate colleges’ training but not quality preparation.”

“The IITs on their part offer total assistance to academically weak students, and  it’s a manageable issue,” says U.B. Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad. “But what they need is support from parents and friends back home, who generally have huge expectations. Unfortunately, there are few channels for the frustrated students to confide and seek solutions, and that leads to suicides,” says C. Veerender, a counsellor.

Friday, August 24, 2012

154 - IIT Kanpur student ends life in city


HYDERABAD, August 24, 2012

A student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, Vaditya Nehru, ended his life by consuming poison at Hayathnagar on city outskirts, the police said on Thursday.

The body of the 20-year-old student hailing from a thanda near Miryalguda of Nalgonda district was found in open land near Brilliant Engineering College in Abdullahpurmet. A resident of the locality found the body with froth near the mouth around 4 p.m. and alerted the police. Based on a wallet and a mobile phone found in his trousers, the police eventually identified him as Nehru. “A second year engineering student, Nehru failed in some subjects and ended his life dejected over this,” the Hayathangar Inspector, G. Srinivas Kumar, said.
The youngster came to Hyderabad four months ago and was living in a private hostel in KPBH Colony.


Thursday, August 23, 2012

153 - Recent media report related to IIT Madras


Recent media report related to IIT Madras

Dear Alumnus/ Alumna,

IIT Madras deeply regrets the untimely demise of Ms. Merugu Manasa, a first-year M.Tech. student in Chemical Engineering. Some of you may have read related accounts involving a photographer and a faculty member of the Institute. It is important to realize that in the context of this incident, our girl students have been the principal victims, and not the photographer. The Institute and officials concerned have been acting with great restraint in trying to close the issue, but are taking all necessary steps in parallel to ensure that the facts are not lost sight of. The photographer insisted on taking live photos of grieving girl students despite their objections, and despite pleas from Dean-Students, Warden-Sarayu and Student Hostel Affairs Secretary. When he was about to to leave without deleting objectionable photos, Chairman, Council of Wardens (CCW) attempted to stop him and received a few punches. At that time, CCW did retaliate in self-defence, but was quickly restrained. The photographer was then guided to the Administrative Block.

Notwithstanding the above sequence of events, CCW regrets that he, a senior Professor of the Institute, was driven to act in the above manner, in order to stand up for the dignity, privacy and security of the lady students.

We solicit your understanding and support....

Prof. R. Nagarajan
Advisor, Office of Alumni Affairs
IIT Madras

152 - A Student Commits Suicide at IIT Kanpur


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011


Here is the communique we received from Director's office:

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur deeply regrets to inform the tragic and untimely death of Mr. Mahtab Ahmed (Roll No. 11397), a first year student of B. Tech in the Department of Material Science and Engineering on September 22, 2011 at around 5:00 PM.

Mr. Mahtab Ahmed was born on June 18, 1994. He was a bright student and was quiet disciplined. Mr. Mahtab Ahmed hailed from Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. He was staying in D-307, Hall 9 in the Institute.

The entire community of the Institute, comprising students, faculty and staff members is deeply aggrieved by the unfortunate death of a young and bright student of the Institute. The entire IIT Kanpur community is by the side of the parents and family members of the departed soul in this hour of grief and extends its heartfelt condolences.

We all pray to God Almighty for bestowing peace upon the departed soul and give courage to the bereaved family members for bearing this irreparable loss.

Update on 23rd Sep: Here are links sent by Pavan (In comments, they are not clickable, hence putting them here again):
facebook page of Mahtab where he suggests that he might not live long.

151 - IIT-M apologises, but still defiant - The Hindu


STAFF REPORTER

IIT-Madras apologised to the photo-journalist who was assaulted while he was on the campus on Tuesday for coverage of the suicide. “IIT-Madras regrets this unfortunate incident and apologizes to the concerned photo-journalist and the media at large.  We hope to enjoy cordial relationships with the media as in the past,” the institution’s director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said in a statement.

At the same time, he alleged the “unfortunate altercation” followed the photo-journalist insisting on “continuing to take close-up photographs of grieving girl students in gross violation of Press Council of India norms.” He urged the media to reflect on the “ethical dimensions” of the conduct of the photo-journalist in the context of the student’s demise.

However, the photographer who was assaulted, Albin Mathew, said he had obtained permission from the dean of students to take pictures. It was because he had refused to delete the pictures that he was assaulted. The professor called security guards to hold him while he punched him on his face and tried to take his camera away. The photographer decided to press charges.

 In a later development, IIT-Madras issued an elaborate statement alleging that the photographer had taken “objectionable” close-up pictures of grieving women students, a charge that Mr. Mathew denied. IIT-Madras claimed that the photographer had punched the chairman of council of wardens, an allegation that was not made earlier. 

On Wednesday morning, a large number of reporters from both the print and visual media staged a demonstration in Sembakkam near Tambaram, protesting the assault.

The Tamil Nadu Press Photographers’ Association has demanded that the institute takes stern action against those involved in the attack.  Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko demanded police action. 

150 - Reporters Guild calls for action - IBN Live


Chennai | Posted on Aug 22, 2012 at 08:20am IST

The Madras Reporters Guild on Tuesday condemned the management of IIT Madras for detaining and assaulting a press photographer of the New Indian Express, Albin Mathew, on the IIT campus on Tuesday while he was on a professional assignment.

In a statement here, R Rangaraj, president of the Guild and D Sekar, secretary, said Mathew was detained by a professor and security personnel of the IIT for taking pictures of the block and groups of students who were discussing the death of a girl student there. When the photographer resisted, the professor called in security personnel as well and assaulted Mathew.

The Guild demanded that necessary action be taken by the top management of IIT-M and police against those involved in the assault and attempted cover-up.

149 - MDMK Chief Flays Attack on Photojournalist- Outlook India



PTI | CHENNAI | AUG 22, 2012

MDMK leader Vaiko today condemned the alleged assault on a photojournalist by an IIT-Madras professor and sought police action.

Vaiko said journalists and media houses work towards highlighting "injustice and scams," and attack on such professionals amounts to attack on democracy.

"To prevent such instances (from recurring), police should take action against those assaulting journalists and ensure their protection," he said in a statement.

Various media bodies have also slammed the attack.

A lensman of Chennai-based 'The New Indian Express,' Mathew was allegedly attacked by an IIT-M professor and some security guards inside the institution on Tuesday when he had gone there for covering the suicide of a girl student.

148 - IIT-Madras don assaults Express lensman - IBN Live


Chennai | Posted on Aug 22, 2012 at 08:20am IST



A photojournalist of The New Indian Express was attacked by a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras for shooting pictures in connection with the suicide of a girl student at the campus hostel.

Lensman Albin Mathew was deputed to take pictures of the Sarayu Extension-II hostel where first-year M Tech student Nerugu Manasa allegedly committed suicide. That is part of professional work of any news photographer, but IIT-M’s Prof Prakash M Maiya had other ideas.

While Mathew was on his way out of the campus, Maiya and a bunch of security personnel intercepted him. They asked him to show the pictures he had clicked and insisted that they be deleted. Mathew naturally refused.

The annoyed professor and five security guards then got physical. While the securitymen pinned him down, the don punched Mathew’s face and rained blows on other parts of the body. Mathew sustained external injuries in the upper lip region and internal injuries in the right chest and the left rear shoulder.

The security guards then took Mathew to the IIT-M’s Administrative Building and detained him for about an hour until policemen arrived on the scene to rescue him after Express took up the matter with the police top brass. Mathew went straight to the Kotturpuram police station and lodged a complaint. He was then taken to the Royapettah Government General Hospital where doctors administered first aid.

IIT-M Dean of Students L S Ganesh later tried to pacify a bunch of agitated journalists and apologised for the episode, terming it as unfortunate.


147 - Student commits suicide - The Hindu


CHENNAI, August 22, 2012
STAFF REPORTER




Barely two weeks after she joined college, Manasa Merugu (21), a first-year M.Tech student of IIT Madras, committed suicide in her hostel room on campus on Tuesday afternoon. Police said family problems led her to take the extreme step.

Manasa, who was a B.Tech graduate from a private college in Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh, was pursuing a specialisation in Chemical Engineering. The student was a resident of Sarayu Extension on the IIT-M campus. She hails from Ramagundam in Karim Nagar district of Andhra Pradesh. Records at IIT show the 21-year-old was married to a man called Srinivas from Andhra Pradesh.

Police sources said the incident would have happened around 2.30 p.m. and they were informed at 4.30 p.m.

“We found out when the carpenter had gone to the room and she did not open the door. He had to climb up the wall and saw through the window, after which we broke open the door,” said the hostel watchman.

M.Tech classes in the institute started on August 1.

A helper at the women’s hostels said, “She had gone home for the last three days. When she came back on Tuesday at 7 a.m., she looked a little upset and did not go to classes. I went to clean the room in the morning and she said she will leave in a while. None of her roommates were in the room then,” she said.

A senior professor in IIT said the suicide could not have been due to stress or academic rigour because the course had just started.

This is the second suicide this year on the IIT-M campus. According to data provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the IITs reported two suicides in 2010, four in 2009 and five in 2008. In 2011, the figure was seven, three of which were by IIT-M students.

News Photographer assaulted

The scene outside the hostel where the IIT student committed suicide turned ugly after Albin Mathew, a news photographer of The New Indian Express, was assaulted by an IIT professor and security guards while he was taking shots of the building.

A senior professor, along with a few guards, assaulted Mathew and took him away to the administrative office where he was held captive till the police arrived. Senior IIT staff expressed regret for the incident. One of the staff members said, the attack was not intentional and the men were only trying to prevent the lensman from taking shots of the female students.

The injured Mathew lodged a complaint with the Kotturpuram police. He was later taken to the Government Royapettah for treatment.

The Madras Reporters' Guild condemned the assault of the photographer and demanded action by the IIT management and the police against those involved in it.



146 - IIT-Madras student commits suicide - Deccan Herald



Chennai, August 21, 2012, DHNS:

The suicide by a 22-year-old girl student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) -Madras at her  campus hostel room on Tuesday sent shock waves across the state.

The student, Manasa, who joined the MTech Programme in chemical engineering three weeks ago, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room this afternoon, sources in IIT-Madras told Deccan Herald here.

Hailing from Karim Nagar District of Andhra Pradesh, Manasa, apparently, left no suicide note, according to police sources, even as investigations by the jurisdictional Kotturpuram Police was continuing late this evening. The victim had used a ‘dupatta’ to hang herself, sources added. “It is extremely shocking and painful,” a faculty member at IIT-Madras said.

The tragedy has plunged the student community at the campus into gloom. Manasa’s body has been recovered by police and kept in a Government Hospital mortuary here.

145 - AP girl found dead in IIT-Madras - Deccan Chronicle


A first year M.Tech (chemical engineering) student from Andhra Pradesh committed suicide in her hostel room at IIT Madras on Tuesday afternoon dashing the hopes of her father, a carpenter from Karimnagar. S. Merugu Manasa, 22, from Godavarikhani, Karimnagar, had arrived in Chennai recently and though the police is yet to ascertain the motive behind her suicide, authorities said that she had got married recently wit-hout informing her parents.

According to the police, Manasa, who had joined the Indian Institute of Technology on August 1, attended the lecture in the morning and had returned to her room at the Sarayu hostel extension in the afternoon. One of her friends, Jothi, came to the hostel at 4 pm and saw that the door was locked from inside. Suspecting something amiss, she informed the hostel warden. The door was broken open and Manasa was found hanging from the ceiling with her dupatta.

144 - M Tech student ends life - Asian Age



A First Year M.Tech (Chemical Engineering) student at IIT Madras committed suicide in her hostel room on Tuesday afternoon.

S. Merugu Manasa, 22, from Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh was reportedly married and had arrived in the city only on Tuesday morning.
Police are yet to find the reason behind her suicide.According to cops, Manasa, who had joined the institute on August 1, attended the lecture session in the morning on Tuesday and later returned to her room at the Sarayu hostel extension in the afternoon.

Her friend, Jothi, returned to the hostel at 4 pm and saw that the door was locked from inside. Suspecting something amiss, she informed the hostel warden. The door was eventually broken open and Manasa was found hanging from the ceiling with her dupatta.

The IIT administration informed the Kotturpuram police who recovered Manasa’s body and sent it to the Government General Hospital at Royapettah for autopsy. Police say that Manasa could have committed suicide between 1 pm and 4 pm.

They also say that Manasa had allegedly married one Srinivasa Minisala, a software engineer in Hyderabad, a few months ago without their parents’ knowledge. Her father Rajesh Shiyam and family live in Karimnagar.
“We informed Manasa’s uncle about her death. He was surprised to know that she had got married and refused to accept the same. We have also informed her husband Minisala, who is on his way to Chennai.

We tried to open her laptop and cell phone but did not have the password,” said an official.
We are yet to ascertain the reason for her death. We have registered a case under IPC Section 174,” said an official.

143 - Mysterious suicide at IIT Madras - India Today




It appears to be a filmy-style wedding on the lines of Mani Ratnam's 'Alaipaayuthe' (Saathiya) but with a tragic end.

Within a fortnight of joining the M.Tech programme at the IIT Madras, S Merugu Manasa (21), from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has committed suicide at her hostel dormitory on Tuesday evening. But, it turned out to be a revelation for the family that the brilliant girl had kept her marriage under the wraps.

While the parents were unaware of it, records at IIT showed that her hubby was Srinivas Minisala, said to be working with Infosys at Hyderabad.

'Sakhi', the Telugu version of 'Alaipaayuthe', featuring chocolate baby Madhavan and Kollywood sensation 'Shalini' was a great hit. The film revolves around the lead pair getting married while pursuing their studies and finally getting integrated with their families. Even the songs were hugely popular.

Police have informed both her parents and husband about the death.
Hailing from Ramagundem in Karimnagar district, she had entered into wedlock with Srinivas Minisala, her batchmate at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad. She joined IIT to pursue specialisation in Chemical Engineering and was a resident of the Sarayu Hostel Extension in the campus.

She was sharing the dormitory with seven others. Within a few days of entering the campus, Manasa had disclosed to colleagues that she was married. Known to be fun-loving, her decision to end her life has come as a surprise to her room-mates and others.

Academic pressure could not have been the reason for the suicide is what a senior professor maintained since classes have commenced only from August 1. She has not left any suicide note. This is the second suicide by a student in the campus since April.

Soon after her enrollment, Manasa left for home and after a stay of three days had returned on Tuesday morning. According to her room mates and the hostel staff, she looked a bit disturbed. Police said she skipped lunch, telling her colleagues that she would join them later.

Instead she locked the dormitory from inside and hanged herself from the ceiling fan with her duppata. Though the incident had happened at around 2.30 pm, police were informed only after 4.30 pm. Police investigating the case said personal problems could be the reason that had driven the girl to take this extreme step.

Her roommates who returned in the evening they found the door locked from inside. With no response, they alerted the hostel authorities and the door was broken open. The body was sent for post-mortem and police said her family had collected the body from the hospital.

In a twist to this incident, a photojournalist of an English Daily who visited IIT and took pictures was assaulted by a professor and the security guards. The professor had asked the lensman, who was on his way back, to delete the pictures he had taken.

On refusing to do so, the professor and the securitymen thrashed him.
After the issue snowballed into a controversy, IIT Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthy issued an apology for the attack on the photographer.




142 - IIT-Madras student found hanging in room - NDTV


August 21, 2012 21:00 IST

Chennai: A 21-year-old IIT student was today found hanging in her room at the campus, police said. She was rushed to a government hospital, where she was declared brought dead. 

The first year M Tech student, a native of Kareem Nagar in Andhra Pradesh was found hanging in her room by a dupatta around 2.30 pm by a carpenter, who went there to fix a door, they said.

No suicide note was found in her room.

The body is kept at the Government Hospital, they said.



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

141 - Breaking the Glass Ceiling - TOI


Yogendra Yadav Jul 7, 2012, 12.00AM IST

Higher education in India should not perpetuate inequality of opportunity
It's admission time again. Charming images of 'freshers' entering the campus and glossy advertisements of the universities we had never heard before hide the harsh reality of educational mortality from school to higher education. Elaborate coverage of rising cutoffs and entrance tests draw our attention to individual merit and luck. We tend to forget the overwhelming role of 'social luck' defined by the accident of birth. As and when we pay attention to inequality of opportunity, the focus is on economic condition. Media's overwhelming coverage of admission season masks the harsh reality of inherited group inequalities.

Reservations get some attention. Recently, a news report about entrance to the IITs mention that 1,403 students got admission under the scheduled caste category, only two dalit students could secure admission under general category. The figures also showed that if there was no reservation for the OBCs, the IITs would have had only 17% students from this social group that comprises around 45% population of the country. Official statistics did not reveal how many upper caste Hindu students make it to the IITs, but a simple back-of-the-envelop calculation shows that despite reservations, their share is anywhere between two or three times their share in population.
Caste however is not the only axis of inequality. Gender, religion, class, locality and region, not to speak of disability, are some of the principal dimensions of educational inequality in our country. A quick look at Gross Attendance Ratio (GAR) for age-group 18-22 years in the 66th round of National Sample Survey (2009-10) brings it out. GAR is measured as percentage of students who report attending a higher educational institution to the total population in age-group 18-22 years. The overall GAR of the country in 2009-10 was 27.7%. In other words, of the 1,000 youth in the age group of 18 to 22, only 277 reported attending any higher educational institution.
Access to higher education for all the disadvantaged social groups is substantially below this national average: the participation of women (23.2%) and OBCs (26.2%) as a whole was marginally below the national average. The figure was substantially lower for SC (17.3%) and villagers (18.7%) and even lower for Muslims (16.1%) and the scheduled tribe (14.2 %). The strongest single factor is of course the economic condition. Among the lowest two quintiles of income distribution, the GAR was as low as 14.1% and 9.3%. As for the disabled, we can only guess that their situation is perhaps worse than any other category, for there are no official statistics on the number of disabled who manage to enter higher education.
We do not have comparable data for subgroups such as the lower OBC, extremely deprived dalit communities such as those engaged in sanitation or particularly vulnerable tribal groups, or nomadic/DNT communities, but the non-official evidence suggests that their condition is much worse than that of the larger category to which they belong. Census figures show many communities like Musahars in Bihar, several nomadic communities and scavenging castes have barely one graduate in the adult population of 1,000. At 48.6% the GAR among Hindu 'general' category is thrice as high as among SCs and STs. We can expect the 'caste census' to yield clearer information on this.
The situation is compounded when an individual lies at the intersection of more than one axis of inequality. While the overall GAR for women stands at 23.2%, it is much worse for rural women (13.4%) and shockingly low for rural women belonging to the poorest income decile (3.8%). For men the GAR was 31.8%, for urban men 48.7% and for urban males in the richest income decile it was well over 100%.

We cannot expect that expansion of higher education will automatically reduce inequalities. Over the years, the access to higher education has improved for all social groups, but their relative disparities have not reduced substantially. While rapid expansion of private educational institutions has helped to meet the acute need for increasing the capacity, it has also accentuated inequalities by reducing the scope of state action in favour of the disadvantaged. The entry of disprivileged social groups has shifted the site of deepest imprint of social inequa-lity from the lower end of higher education to its upper end.
How then does one address these stark inequalities in higher education? Experience of the past suggests three lessons. First, instead of just talking about inequalities, we need to pay careful attention to the various dimensions of inequalities and how they interact with one another. This would mean targeting subgroups such as scavenging and nomadic communities on the one hand and identifying groups that lie at the intersection of many inequalities, on the other.
Second, talk about equity must be backed by resources. In particular there is a need for a quantum jump in the volume, range and amount of student support measures like scholarship, stipend, assistantship and loans for disadvantaged students. Third, reservation needs to be supplemented by a range of smart equity designs such as a multi-dimensional index of disadvantage for students and a diversity index for institutions.
If these steps are not taken soon equity might quietly drop from our higher educational policy motto of "Expansion, Equity and Excellence".
The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.



Monday, July 9, 2012

140 - Why there's an alarming rash of suicides among Dalit students


BREAKING CASTE
STEPHANIE NOLEN
New Delhi — The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, Jul. 07 2012, 6:00 AM EDT


The sharply truncated life of Anil Meena was marked by a ferocious tenacity.
From the mud house in rural Rajasthan, where he grew up in a family of subsistence farmers, he made his way first to school and then to the top of his class. He studied with monomaniacal intensity and passed the entrance exam to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the most prestigious of India’s professional colleges – an achievement almost unfathomable in the largely illiterate aboriginal community from which he came.

At AIIMS, he battled through classes where he couldn’t understand a word of the English being spoken and pored over a dictionary to get through textbooks. When an arbitrary rule change – that just happened to affect only students from backgrounds such as his – cost him a passing grade in a crucial exam, he tried repeatedly to meet his course director, his friends say. He sat outside the man’s office for four or five hours at a time for a week.

But Mr. Meena had come up against something his intelligence and perseverance could not overcome: Students of his kind are not welcome at AIIMS, no more than they are at other prestigious Indian universities. They rarely graduate. No one was prepared to help him succeed.

On March 3, Mr. Meena hung himself from the fan in his small dormitory room. He was 22.

His death was a crippling blow to his family, a shock to his friends and an ugly blemish for AIIMS. It was also the 20th reported suicide in four years at an elite Indian educational institution by a student who was either aboriginal or Dalit – the people from the bottom of the Hindu caste system, once known as untouchables.

The suicides have emerged as a subject for fierce debate. Following the promise of the new India, these students are hyper-achievers from the grimmest of backgrounds, who made it into the schools that produce engineers, doctors and business leaders who are sought the world over.

But when they get there, they are often isolated, humiliated and discriminated against. They are told overtly by their professors that they will never make it to graduation. Yet many feel they cannot drop out – families and communities are invested in their success, and many have taken huge loans.
Some, trapped in this dilemma, have chosen to end their lives.

In the very places that produce the innovators who are supposed to shape its future, India is dogged by the darkest forces from its past.

“It’s very pervasive and very invisible,” says Shweta Barge, who monitors educational discrimination for the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights. 
From a Dalit community herself, Ms. Barge often tried to keep her identity cloaked as she managed to earn a postgraduate degree. “Those [Hindu] ideas of purity and pollution exist across every stream, in every school. It gets to hard-core Indian values: It’s not just about where you reach; it’s about where you came from.”

The suicides have occurred at 16 different institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and at the universities of Hyderabad and Bangalore.

In 2008, a final-year Dalit medical student at Government Medical College in Chandigarh in the Punjab hung himself in the college library; Jaspreet Singh left a note in his pocket describing how the head of his department told him repeatedly to his face that he would never, ever be permitted to be a doctor.
That professor had failed him several times in course work, although Mr. Singh had never before had anything but top marks. After his death, an external committee re-evaluated his exams and found that he should have passed. He was awarded his degree posthumously.

On March 3, 2010, exactly two years before Mr. Meena’s death, another young aboriginal man killed himself at AIIMS. Bal Mukund Bharti, 25, was just weeks away from earning his degree, something unprecedented in his community in Madhya Pradesh.

His parents, who’d taken out massive loans to support him, told a team from of investigators from the Insight Foundation, which works to support Dalit and aboriginal students, that he repeatedly complained of harassment from his professors.

He said that one often complained, “I don’t know where they come from, these Dalits and [aboriginals], getting here without studying anything.”

Yet Mr. Bharti was, in fact, brilliant. He had scored eighth among hundreds of thousands of students nationwide in the intensely competitive engineering entrance exam – he passed up the seat to become a doctor instead. AIIMS carried out no investigation and says he had psychological problems.

And this April, an MBA student hanged herself at a private college in Gurgaon, the new technology and industry hub on the edge of Delhi. Dana Sangma was aboriginal, from Meghalaya state in India’s remote northeast.

The university quickly released the explanation that she was distraught after being caught cheating on an exam – but her uncle, her home state’s chief minister, who had personally enrolled his niece at the high-priced school, called that claim preposterous.

He registered a complaint with the National Commission of Schedule Castes and Tribes, saying she had been driven to suicide by harassment at the college.
India has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world, especially in the age group of college students. But these deaths stand out because of the clear connection, often described in suicide notes, with the discrimination the victim endured.

The issue goes to the heart of a story that India wants to tell about itself these days: that traditional guarantees of privilege – wealth and caste – are losing power in favour of merit.

But if that is at all true, it is thanks largely to the program of “reservations” – a form of affirmative action under which all publicly funded educational institutions must reserve about 40 per cent of their seats for aboriginal (or “tribal”), Dalit and “other backward caste” students.

A percentage of jobs in government institutions are also reserved, as are political seats in municipal government.

The education reservations were set out in the Indian constitution adopted in 1950, although it was decades before there was more than a handful of such students who even reached the point of applying, and uproars from dominant-caste students and their families were a consistent drag on the program’s full implementation until recently.

Today, there is a politically incorrect tint to complaining about reservations, but many dominant-caste students still resent them.

India is desperately short of higher-education institutions. The Ministry of Human Resource Development says the country needs at least 1,500 more – 520,000 students wrote the entrance exam for the IIT this year, competing for fewer than 10,000 spots.

A degree from one of the elite engineering or medical institutes is a ticket to a life of comfort. But the competition for seats, combined with the reservations, means the admission cutoff – the minimum grade for acceptance – for non-reserved students hovers in the high 90s.

Dalit students are perceived as taking seats that should go to students who scored higher. Indeed, there are thoughtful critics, such as the leading New Delhi public intellectual Gucharan Das, who point out that inequality in India today does not always follow traditional lines – some in the “other backward caste” groups are prospering, but they pressed to be included among the reservations, while other poor people are left out.

But those are the exceptions. Anoop Kumar, who runs the Insight Foundation, says most of the backlash against reservations comes from an (often deliberate) misunderstanding of the principle. “People are defining merit strictly in terms of marks in the entrance exam, and that conveniently discounts all the other factors affecting the performance of the students,” he says.

“So a student from an urban, upper-caste, upper-class background who has both parents literate and studied at a an elite, private [English-language] school is considered more ‘meritorious’ when he or she has 85-per-cent marks, than a reservation-category student who goes to a terrible government school in [Hindi] and has no one in the family who is literate but still scores 75-per-cent marks.”

Yet their dominant-caste peers still grouse that the reserved-category students would never make it if they had to compete on an open field. Their professors often share that view: As Ms. Barge points out, the faculty in these prestigious institutes is overwhelming made up of people from the dominant castes, since only a single generation of Dalits really has had the chance for a professional education.

“They have this idea rooted in their psyche that tribal and Dalit students ‘don’t have the merit and can’t match up to us,’ ” says Ajita Rao, a Dalit medical doctor who studies discrimination in professional education. “That’s the hidden thing.”

Dr. Rao says that resentment, hostility and isolation – rooted in the idea that Dalits and aboriginals are “unclean” – permeates college life. They are shunned in dining halls and dorms and mocked in classes, ever reminded of their marginalization.

This has a debilitating effect on students who always thought of themselves as achievers.

“You go for [an oral examination] and they ask you your name and where you are from, and you say Meena from Rajasthan – they say, ‘ Oh, okay,’ ” says Jagram Meena, 20, who was a close friend of Anil Meena’s (but no relation – their surname is given to all in their caste group).

He says such exchanges have a direct effect on his performance: “You feel dehumanized and you forget everything you want to say. They are saying, ‘Okay, you are a reservation-category student and you don’t know anything.’ You’re marked from that moment.”

In 2006, a series of protests by Dalit and aboriginal students at AIIMS complaining of discrimination prompted the central government to appoint Sukhadeo Thorat, a prominent academic from a Dalit background, to investigate.

His three-person commission found dorms segregated by caste, students subjected to open hostility by their teachers and even physical attacks by dominant-caste students on those they considered inferior.

The Thorat report said these students consistently reported having less time with oral examiners, and being asked their surname in unnecessary situations. It faulted AIIMS for failing to provided language support to students coming from Hindi- language schools and for relying heavily on subjective assessments rather than more objective tests.

Also, in a grim foreshadowing of the experience Anil Meena would describe a few years later – the report criticized cases of sudden rule changes that had a disproportionate impact on reserved-category students.

In Mr. Meena’s case, the weight given to one assessment was changed to 50 from 25 per cent, seemingly arbitrarily, after the exam had been conducted. This caused him and many other students to fail – almost all reservation students, said Mahinder Meena, an intern at AIIMS (also from the Rajasthani aboriginal community) who helped organize protests after the suicide. The Thorat report recorded a pattern of such incidents.

AIIMS’s administration rejected the report “in totality,” calling it biased, although under public pressure it did increase its language-learning support.
In the wake of Anil Meena’s death, the administration acknowledges only that he had been depressed about failing an exam and was struggling with English.
“This was a tragic event,” says Rakesh Yadav, AIIMS’s subdean for academic issues. “No institution wants that.”

The school did offer financial compensation to Mr. Meena’s parents. But Dr. Yadav rejects the idea that the university’s conduct had any role. “It is absolutely not true. All support any [medical] student needs is provided – the faculty and the administration is always there to help out.”

Dr. Yadav will agree that the area of language support might be insufficient – that an hour a day might not be enough to get a unilingual Hindi student through a medical curriculum. “It’s basically a language problem.”

Beyond that, however, he says there was “no discrimination” in AIIMS. “If you say faculty are doing the discrimination – it’s too much. … They assess students based on marks.”

As for bias, he adds, there are processes to prevent any individual professor from vindictively undermining a student, but clinical skills, for example, must by definition be evaluated in person: “To modify it to be 100 per cent objective – it’s not possible.”

However, after Anil Meena’s death, AIIMS contacted Prof. Thorat again and asked him to return to the school to investigate, which he considers a major improvement over the hostile reception to his last inquiry.
“This time there is an attitude to do something about the problem they face,” he says. “I have a feeling that because of these two suicides … it shook the faculty and teachers.”

Jagram Meena hopes so. He points out that his friend Anil placed 400th in the all-India medical entrance exam, far higher than most of the general-category students at AIIMS. They both certainly struggled in their first year – they had to consult the dictionary 10 times to read a single page of their textbooks – but Anil was managing.

He played Bollywood music loudly to relax, or joined friends – mostly from his caste group – for cricket in the courtyard. His father and brother were taking loans to send him fees every month. He was coping, Jagram says, until the rules kept shifting.

“We’re in no way lower than the general-category students,” says Jagram, sipping tea at the canteen outside the student dorm.

“One day,” he says – when the public schools that prepare Dalit and aboriginal kids are as good as everyone else’s – “we’ll all be one category.”

But Mahinder Meena cuts him off, demanding to know how change like that could come as long as it’s almost impossible for Dalit students to succeed.
“Our fear about his suicide,” Mahinder says, “is that it will change nothing.”

Stephanie Nolen is The Globe and Mail’s correspondent based in New Delhi.




Sunday, June 17, 2012

139 - Cacophony, And The Sound Of Silence - India Today



its/stress
Cacophony, And The Sound Of Silence
The IITs: where many students cower under the glare and heat of brightness

A decade ago, when 19-year-old Devendra Prasad first walked into IIT Kanpur from his village in Orissa, he was amazed at the level of intelligence of the people there. With a limited ability to converse in English, the village boy was apprehensive. His tension increased when, at the hostel, a senior asked him: “Where have you rats come from, with slippers and bags?” That, Prasad remembers, was just the beginning of a crushing stress that would stay with him through the four years of his tenure at India’s best known educational brand.

Despite being a brilliant student and a topper back in his village school, Prasad was always on catch-up mode in his IIT class, just another student in a sea of toppers and bright brains. The curriculum was tough and left little room for anything else. And the socio-economic gap with students from well-to-do families left him crippled with a pressure that he found difficult to get out of.
Often, Prasad thought of running away from the academic gaol he found himself thrown into.
“The IIT admission was a passport to a good life. But there was so much expectation that we could not run away and it was difficult to integrate with the system, academically, socially, emotionally. The stress was difficult to handle,” he recalls.

In many ways, that is the situation facing a large number of students studying at the IITs and leading educational institutions today. A majority of students are under tremendous amount of stress. Many find ways to deal with it, but some give up and run away. Worse, others resort to extreme measures like drinking or drugs. Cases of suicides are also not unheard of.

The initial stress derives from the fact that from being toppers in their school, students come into a pool where everyone is a topper and they have to compete with people smarter than them. Added to that is the extreme demands of the IIT engineering curriculum. The expectations from outside, from family and social circles, which expect IITans to come up tops in everything in life, put back-breaking pressure on kids. Says psychiatrist Dr. Nimesh G. Desai: “The problem is there in all apex institutions. When you put together a bunch of toppers, the pressures work strongly and the mechanism to handle this condition of the high achievers is not present at the institutions. Some institutions have counsellors to aid students. But many have nothing at all.”

 
 
“At IITs, you need your peer group to pull you along. Not graduating with your peers carries a serious psychological burden.”Nalin Pant, Professor, IIT Delhi
 
 
The statistics are shocking. In IIT Delhi, about 600 out of 853 students have gone through counselling because of excessive stress. Obviously, this has a direct impact on students’ academic scores. According to some professors, in some IITs, on an average, 20 per students fail in two subjects. They are sent for probation and lose a semester. Worse, a large number of students do not clear their degree in four years. And that leads to further problems. Says Nalin Pant, a professor of chemistry at IIT Delhi: “IIT is a place where you need your peer group to pull you along. Kids who do not graduate with their peer group suffer serious psychological burden and are not equipped to deal with it.”
Some teachers also blame the ‘system’ for the stress. Says a former IIT student on the condition of anonymity: “The academic pressure at the IITs has not changed in the last 40 years. What has changed is the skills set of students. Because of the changes in the system and quotas, you are getting students with a very poor skills set into an environment that is extremely demanding academically.”

There are other systemic issues. The number of students has increased to such a level that direct or individual attention by teachers is impossible. For instance, 20 years ago, IITs had, on an average, 40 students to a class. Today that number has risen to 300, while the number of teachers has risen by just by 20-30. This is leading to gaps in students’ understanding of course material and lack of feedback to teachers.

Also to blame, say experts, is a coaching culture which prepares students to just crack the IIT-JEE without building a sound foundation in science. Says Arjun Malhotra, chairman, Headstrong, and an IIT alumnus: “Today, kids have been trained only in the objective method of answering questions. Ask them to write an essay answer and most of them just do not know how to do that. Subjective skills are just not there.” And that puts pressure when they are swamped by the IIT curriculum.


A large number of IITians don’t clear their degree in four years. (Photograph by Tribhuvan Tiwari)
Students also feel that much of the pressure is from the academic curriculum and tough routine. Says Nikunj, a student at IIT Delhi: “Stress is roughly equal to number of courses per semester. One course contains lectures, tutorials, three exams, quizzes, submissions, presentations, and a lot of cut-throat competition. Multiply it with six and you have a stressed out student.” While the IITs are aware of the situation and are taking measures like introducing counsellors, they are far and few between. At present the government has permitted only one counsellor per IIT—considering the number of students, this is grossly inadequate.

Teachers are equally stressed out. An IIT professor says on the condition of anonymity: “One of the reasons higher education is reeling is because we are dealing with a large number of first generation learners. There are issues about caste and quota and economic class. You have serious problems in dealing with it as there is no story-telling in technical education.”

Somewhere around, technology is also to blame. Sandipan Deb, a former IIT Kharagpur alumnus, feels that too much access to laptops and the internet has cocooned students within their hostel rooms, instead of allowing them to mix with their peer group. “Before the internet, in the ’80s and ’90s, students formed strong friendships in class and hostels and a support group was there to share emotional, academic and other problems. Now every student has a connection in his room and without interaction, students lead a far more lonely life. There is no way to let out the pressure.”

The silver lining is that many students are back to forming niche groups within IITs where they discuss everything, from academics to theatre. Some IITs have introduced social sciences and subjects like English and psychology as stress busters. But the final detox formula is yet to be written. As things stand, we’ve got some serious thinking to do about our premier institutions—beyond bickering over common entrance tests.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

138 - Students protest against suicide at IIT-K - TOI


TNN Sep 27, 2011, 01.18pm IST

KANPUR: Scores of students came out on roads in Kakadeo locality in protest against the IIT-Kanpur administration over the suicidal death of Mehtab Ahmed, a BTech first-year student at the institute.

Most of the aspiring students were aspirants of Joint Entrance Exam of 2012.
During their protest, they were holding banners and placards in their hands condemning the ever-increasing cases of suicides at IIT-K.

The students also raised slogans criticising the IIT-K director and demanded a probe into the entire matter.

They alleged that ten students have committed suicide at IIT-Kanpur so far and institute's administration had done nothing about it.

The protest was led by Kilkil Sachan, a rusticated student of IIT-Kanpur. 

Meanwhile, a maths teacher of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, V N Pal, also staged a dharna at IIT-Kanpur gate. He was supported by nearly one dozen students. Pal said that this protest was staged to awaken the sleeping IIT-Kanpur administration over the increasing cases of suicides at the institute.

137 - IIT hanging case: Father alleges ragging, fresh case registered - Indian Express



Shalini Narayan : New Delhi, Sat Feb 11 2012, 01:04 hrs

Seven months after Dinesh Ahlawat, a first-year chemical engineering student, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in an IIT Delhi hostel, his father has filed a case of abetment to suicide, saying ragging by seniors forced his son to end his life.

Dinesh died two days before his 19th birthday. His father Yashveer Singh, who teaches science at a school in Rohtak, alleged that Dinesh spoke to him twice and complained that he had been ragged by seniors.

When his body was found on August 4 in the Zanskar hostel, police ruled out ragging as a reason for the alleged suicide and said he may have had “adjustment problems and homesickness”.

While investigating officers said the case was one of suicide, Dinesh’s death remained a mystery since he was found hanging with his hands tied with a handkerchief and legs bound with his vest. Police now say the probe will continue, that the autopsy concluded it was “suicidal hanging” with no external injury marks on the body.

Yashveer Singh appealed before the Saket court, saying he wasn’t satisfied with the response he got from the institute or the police. The court directed police to register a case. A case under IPC Section 306 — abetment of suicide — has been registered.

In his statement to the police, Singh said: “Students had to break open the door to get in and lower my son’s body. He was rushed to hospital where he was declared brought dead. On 30.7.2011, he told me he was ragged by his seniors. I spoke to him on August 1 and 2 when he spoke to the rest of the family too. Later, I found out that on August 3, seniors had ragged the juniors.”

“I strongly suspect that it was because of this (ragging) that my son felt humiliated and took his life,” Singh said.

He told Newsline: “My son called me and told me that he would be coming home for his birthday... The college administration has hidden the real issue from us. Otherwise, why was my son’s body discovered by three seniors? What were seniors doing in his hostel at that time?”

Shashi Mathur, Dean of Students at IIT Delhi, said: “We are as confused about the matter as anyone else. He was a bright student, a very nice boy. An inquiry committee was constituted which stated that there was no element of ragging. The institute carries out regular sessions on anti-ragging awareness. I lead the team that goes around the 12 hostels and counsel students about the Supreme Court ruling. It is mandatory for students to attend this.”

Chhaya Sharma, DCP (South), said: “We received orders from the court under Section 156 (3) CrPc and we have complied with it.”


136 - Retired IIT Delhi professor jumps to death from seventh floor - NDTV



Press Trust of India | Updated: October 22, 2011 22:22 IST

New Delhi:  A retired IIT Delhi professor killed himself today by jumping off the seventh floor of the IIT building, police said.

62-year-old Ashok Kumar Sharma, who was a resident of Dwarka, had retired recently and had continued to frequent the IIT campus.

He committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of the main administrative building at 12.30 pm today, a police official said.

He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. 

While a son and a daughter stay in the United States, another daughter lives in Orissa where she works as a Professor.

"His wife is on a visit to Orissa," the official said. Police said the retired professor was in the middle of some court cases pertaining to his age.

Preliminary inquiry also suggested that he was disturbed due to health reasons.



135 - Another suicide at IIT Bombay forces authorities to rethink academic policies



BY ABHISHEK RAJ – AUGUST 6, 2011

Another final year student at IIT Bombay has committed suicide, taking the toll to 12 deaths this year. The deceased student, Aniket Prasad, hanged himself in his room while his roommate was attending classes. As a result, IIT Bombay has regained its supremacy by surpassing IIT Delhi in the aggregate number of suicides thus far.

Aniket’s friends were shocked by his suicide. They believe he could have been distressed because he had failed in quite a few courses in the third year and his C.P.I. had taken a plunge. 

The gender imbalance in the IITs and the fresh hullabaloo surrounding the spread of the gay disease in the campus meant that he spent more time in labs than in caféterias and multiplexes. He had a break-up with his girlfriend because he couldn’t land a foreign internship in the last summer. His roommate Pratik reported that Aniket was also upset over being seen as a geek by his relatives. He wanted to be creative and develop a multifaceted personality, but his coaching centre in Kota, and then IIT Bombay, ensured that his pursuit of happiness persisted in the direction they chose.

Pratik further added, “Aniket seemed depressed in the last few months. However, this is not considered a big deal here and a visit to the on-campus psychiatrist is considered good enough to rid one off his depression.” Another student reported (under the assurance of anonymity) that this instant relief provision at the psychiatrist’s has something to do with his hot compounder.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad has blamed the ISI and Islamic terrorists for these deaths. They have demanded a CBI enquiry.

Some students (among those still alive) blame the spate of suicides to the abominable food provided in the mess. Another student was shrewd enough to point out that all those students who committed suicide in the past shared one common trait. Apparently, none of them had Posts of Responsibilities (PORs) on their résumés.

The Dean of Student Affairs (popularly known as DoSA) considers these suicides a testimony to the rigorous academics of the IITs and is proud that he has managed to get the better of the best students. “This is a flawless model of survival of the fittest. We are running an educational institute here and not a life insurance company. Students have to play by our rules. It is my vision to make the IITs the best engineering institutions in the world. Few suicides here and there won’t deter our resolve. It is a small price that we need to pay reckoning the huge stakes.” Aniket’s batch-mates are rather excited because these suicides have reduced the rivalry for the campus placements. As this is only the beginning of the placement season, they expect further reduction.

Meanwhile Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, has requested the Central Government to grant Bihar a special state rank because five out of these twelve students were from this state. He expressed concerns over tortures that Bihari students undergo from their peers in the IITs due to Bihar’s development levels.

According to Anna Hazare, these suicides represent students’ dissatisfaction with the corrupt government. “Now the government can’t escape from the charges of corruption. Indian youth, led by the valiant IITians, seek answers. We will ensure that their martyrdom doesn’t go waste. This movement will continue till we achieve a corruption-free State. We are ready to pour more blood into this fight. After all, we have fifteen IITs and so many colleges. More students will emulate the deeds of these twelve martyrs. ”

Due to protests from different political parties and social activists, Kapil Sibal, the Union HRD Minister, convened a caucus of the directors of all the IITs. After a lengthy discussion, the following recommendations were made to reduce the number of suicides and de-stress the students:
  1. Introduction of a Girls’ quota in the admission process to improve boys’ attendance in classes.
  2. Replacement of ‘Simulations and Modelling’ in the final year project with modelling stints to create new jobs for students in the best modelling agencies.
  3. Signing an MoU with Channel V to allow students to participate in shows like Love Net, Axe Your Ex, Dare 2 Date, to provide them with opportunities to date.
  4. 60% reservation in campus placements for students having C.P.I. less than 5. Students having more number of backlogs will be preferred.
  5. Opening multiplexes, pubs, discos in the IIT campuses.
The government hopes these measures will reduce pressure if implemented.



134 - Student commits suicide, says tired of IIT in note - Hindustan Times



IANS
Kanpur, September 23, 2011

A student of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) was found hanging from his hostel room, police in this Uttar Pradesh town said on Friday, suspecting that he was depressed over a failed love affair.

Mahtab Ahmed, 18, a first year student of B.Tech material science and engineering from Kannauj, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his room Thursday.

While no suicide note was found, police believe Ahmed was in depression, as evident from the writing on the walls of his room.
"I am tired of IIT…What is the meaning of happiness, yet trying to get answer," wrote Ahmed on one of the walls.

"We suspect a failed love affair as one of the possible reasons... We have learnt that Mahtab was having a love affair with a girl, who was from outside the campus," a senior police officer told IANS.

"We have also come to know that Mahtab used to write poems over his relationship with the girl, who is yet to be identified," he added.

When contacted, Inspector Rajesh Kumar, who is investigating the case, said: "We are probing the case from all the angles. Love affair is also one of them."
According to IIT-K Registrar Sanjeev Kashalkar, the suicide was detected Thursday evening when Ahmed did not respond to the repeated door knocks by his friends.

"We informed the police and they broke open the door," said Kashalkar.


133 - BTech student commits suicide in IIT-Kanpur - Deccan Herald


Kanpur, Sep 22 (PTI)2011

A first year BTech student of IIT-Kanpur today allegedly committed suicide in his hostel room, the ninth such case in five years, police said.

19-year-old Mehtab Ahmed, a resident of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, hanged himself in his hostel room, they said. The reason as to why he took the extreme step was not immediately known.

The incident came to light when his friends found him hanging in his room and reported the matter to the authorities following which the warden rushed to the hostel and found him dead.

"Ahmed was a student of Material Science and Engineering and was living in Room No 307," IIT-K Director Sanjay Dhande said. The IIT-K authorities immediately constituted a four-member committee to probe the matter and reported the incident to Kalyapur police station. The committee has been asked to submit its report within a week, he said.

Dhande said Ahmed had taken admission in IIT-K just two months back. Asked if he was driven to suicide because of ragging, he said the matter was being looked into, but, prima facie it did not appear to be so.

Meanwhile, IIT-K Registrar Sanjeev Kashalkar said the boy's family members have been informed. The news of his suicide created flutter inside the campus as this was the ninth such case during the last five years.

Reply to an RTI query showed that from 2005 to 2010, two girl students and six boys of IIT-K have committed suicide. Five students committed suicide in their hostel rooms, one jumped from the roof of a building in the campus and another jumped in front of a moving train. Yet another had consumed poison.

132 - Suicide at IIT - Telegraph


Thursday , July 21 , 2011 |



OUR CORRESPONDENT

Kharagpur, July 20: An IIT Kharagpur student who failed to clear the fourth-year exams last year and fared badly this time too was found hanging in his hostel room today.

Police said they suspected Pankaj Chaudhury, a metallurgy student, had committed suicide. The 24-year-old, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in the Meghnad Saha Hall and Residence on the IIT campus this afternoon.

Chaudhury’s roommates said they returned from classes around 3pm and found him hanging. The door had been left open. The students informed the authorities who, in turn, called the police. The police brought Chaudhury’s body down and took him to the institute’s hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

A police officer said Chaudhury had been “suffering from depression” as he had failed the exams last year and “done badly this time too”. His family has been informed.
The officer said no suicide note had been found. IIT officials have refused comment.

131 - IIT boy found hanging in hostel - TOI


IIT boy found hanging in hostel
TNN Oct 19, 2011, 02.03AM IST

KHARAGPUR: Sunil Kujur, a fourth year student of IIT Kharagpur, was found hanging in his hostel room on Tuesday evening. He was a brilliant student and had no problem with studies but was depressed for some reason, say his friends.
This is the second suicide at IIT-Kgp in three months. In July, a final year student of the metallurgy department had killed himself.

"Kujur had stopped interacting with his friends and hostel mates for the past month. He had become a recluse and even refused to take food at times," said an institute official. On Tuesday, his friends knocked on Kujur's door at Jahangir Hall but got no reply. They broke it down to find the 22-year-old hanging from the ceiling.

He was a resident of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. "He had an excellent academic record. There is no possibility of stress due to studies. We initially thought Kujur was remaining aloof due to the semester examination," said the IIT-Kgp official. 

Kujur's family members are on their way. No suicide note was found, said Kharagpur additional SP Miraj Khaled. "We are trying to speak to his friends to find out why he killed himself. We will take his laptop for investigation," Khaled said.

Monday, February 27, 2012

130 - Koshish Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahin Hoti,


Koshish Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahin Hoti,

Lehron se darkar nauka par nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti,

Nanhi cheenti jab daana lekar chalti hai,
chadhti deewaron par, sau bar phisalti hai.
Man ka vishwas ragon mein saahas bharta hai,
chadhkar girna, girkar chadhna na akharta hai.

Akhir uski mehnat bekar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.


Dubkiyan sindhu mein gotakhor lagata hai,

ja ja kar khali haath lautkar aata hai.

Milte nahi sahaj hi moti gehre paani mein,

badhta dugna utsah isi hairani mein.

Muthi uski khali har bar nahin hoti,
Koshish karne walon ki haar nahi hoti.

Asaflta ek chunauti hai, ise sweekar karo,
kya kami reh gayi, dekho aur sudhar karo.
Jab tak na safal ho, neend chain ki tyago tum,
Sangharsh ka maidan chhodkar mat bhago tum.

Kuch kiye bina hi jai jaikar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.



By Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan 

Saturday, December 3, 2011

129 - IIT launches confession box to help students vent woes - TOI




CHENNAI: Confessions can help save lives. The idea has prompted Indian Institute of Technology - Madras to encourage students to share their experiences and feelings on an Online Confession Box to help them cope with stress caused by academic and parental pressures orbroken relationships. "It's not always easy to find a person you can trust to talk to at any time of the day. Sometimes you just have to hear yourself talking about the issue to somebody, just rant. At such times, an online confession box helps," said a second year student, who declined to be named.

Students can log on to the Online Confession Box on the social networking page of the General Counselling Unit (GCU) and speak out while remaining anonymous. They can also seek help from behavioural experts through the confession box. There have been three suicides at IIT-M this year, spurring the institution to launch mental health initiatives, including a 24-hour helpline manned by behavioural experts and the social networking page offering tips on how to handle stress and identify psychological disorders like a obsessive compulsive disorder.

The revamped GCU is to be named Mitr. "For several years, GCU was in fire-fighting mode, helping students in distress. Now, we are trying to take preventive measures," said GCU head Sivakumar Srinivasan.

Other IITs too have launched similar initiatives. IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi have student mentor programmes that identify senior students on whom freshers can bank on to guide and help them handle academic and co-curricular issues. It has been found that while 35% of students at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and 45% in Harvard seek help for mental health issues, only 5% of students come to the GCU.

"This is because of the stigma attached to going to hospital for such issues. So we have come up with ideas for students to get help online through social networking sites, talks by alumni on topics, and addressing them as a group in the hostel to give tips on, say, 'How to study whenfriends keep dropping in'," Sivakumar said.

Alumni have also offered support in many ways. Raju Venkatraman of the 1981 batch, who started Medall Healthcare, has tied up with IIT-M to provide 24-hour assistance through tele-counselling with behavioural experts. "At one of our discussions in the Centre for Alumni Relations Enhancements, we asked for suggestions. One of the first to respond was Raju, who said he would help them handle behavioural issues," said advisor at IIT-M's office of alumni affairs R Nagarajan.

The GCU is also trying to get alumni who have gone through tough times to talk to students. "If an alumnus who was into substance abuse in college can talk about how it affected his life and how he overcame it, it will get students to kick the habit," said Sivakumar.

The manpower at GCU has been strengthened to include 15 faculty volunteers and five head student counsellors. They will co-ordinate with 100 students across departments and hostels. Medall Healthcare has given students and faculty the first level of training in counselling to identify those in need of help.