IIM failure leads IIT engineer to plan suicide - INDICA

IIM failure leads IIT engineer to plan suicide

News July 21, 2020July 21, 2020 indica

IANS

If you want to see your son alive, arrange Rs 500,000 by tomorrow. That was the terse message the father of Ankit Gupta received on his cellphone around 8pm Sunday in Budh Vihar, Rohini, Delhi.

Ankit, 24, is an IIT Delhi passout.

His father told police that Ankit, his younger son, had gone to the Canara Bank ATM around 6pm and had not returned. His mobile phone was also not reachable.

At 8pm, Ankit’s father received the message from his son’s mobile.

The complaint led the Delhi police to form a team and start searching for the kidnapped man.

The CCTV camera footage of the area was checked, starting from the house of the victim to the ATM of Canara Bank. Ankit was seen going out from his house and was seen up to half of the route to the ATM. He turned to the other side of the main road and didn’t visit the ATM.

Cops tracked his mobile phone and found it had another number, which was not known to the family members. The location of this number was obtained and it was last found active at 8.47pm at Sarai Rohilla railway station.

The police team went to the Sarai Rohilla Railway Station and questioned the station master about the details of the trains which had recently left from there, scrutinized the reservation charts of the trains, checked the CCTV cameras at the entry and exit of the railway station and tried to identify the victim with the help of his family members.

Ankit was seen entering the railway station on a CCTV camera at the entry gate but could not be traced at the station.

Later, he was seen in one of the cameras, boarding the unreserved bogey of the Sampark Kranti Rajdhani Express, which had left for Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The footage and Ankit’s photographs were shared with the Government Railway Police in Jaipur who checked the train.

Ankit was identified and taken to Delhi.

Ankit had done his BTech in mechanical engineering from IIT Delhi. He completed his degree in 2017 and joined a private company at Gurugram in Haryana. He later switched to another private company in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Lately, he was working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He wanted to join IIM Ahmedabad for an MBA. He tried twice but could not succeed.

“He was under acute depression and wanted to commit suicide,” said deputy commissioner of police Pramod Kumar Mishra. “He planned the same and left his home. He himself sent the ransom message from his phone to misguide his parents so that he got sufficient time to commit suicide. It was only due to the prompt action of the police that a precious life was saved. Ankit has been counseled and has been handed over to his parents.”

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24-year-old in Delhi fakes own kidnapping in bid to commit suicide- INDIA TODAY

A Delhi IIT pass out faked his own kidnapping to misguide his parents so that he could commit suicide. The 24-year-old wanted to join IIM Ahemdabad for completing his MBA, for which he tried twice but could not succeed.


Tanseem Haider New Delhi

July 22,



Two different teams were constituted under the guidance of DCP Rohini to crack the case. (Image for representation: PTI)

Apne bache ko jinda dekhna hai toh kal tak panch lakh rupey ka intzaam karke rakh (If you want to see your son alive, arrange Rs 5 lakh by tomorrow ) -- was the message family of 24-year-old Delhi IIT pass out Ankit Gupta received at around 8 pm on Sunday in Budh Vihar, Rohini. It was found that Ankit Gupta had himself sent the ransom message from his phone to misguide his parents so that he could get sufficient time to commit suicide. He was under acute depression.

The victim was traced by police, counselled and then handed over to his parents.

Ankit Gupta had left his house for a nearby ATM of Canara Bank at 6 pm and didn't return.

On July 19, a complaint was received by Vinod Gupta who said that his younger son Ankit Gupta had gone to Canara Bank ATM at around 6 pm and did not return. "His mobile phone is also not reachable," he said.

Vinod Gupta further stated that at 8 pm, he received a message from his son Ankit's mobile in which he was asked to arrange for Rs 5 lakhs until tomorrow if he wants to see his son alive.

He said that Ankit Gupta is B. Tech from IIT Delhi and was working in a private firm in Noida. He had completed his degree in 2017. He wanted to join IIM Ahemdabad for completing his MBA. He tried twice for the same but could not succeed. He was under acute depression and wanted to commit suicide.

Two different teams were constituted under the guidance of DCP Rohini. A CCTV footage showed that the victim leaving his house, on his way to the ATM. He then turned to the other side on the main road and didn't visit the ATM of Canara Bank.

The live CDR of the mobile phone of the victim was obtained to know his last location. From the CDR, another mobile number of the victim was identified, which was not known to the family members. The location of this number was obtained and it was last found active at Sarai Rohilla Railway Station.

Police then went to the Sarai Rohilla Railway Station and checked the CCTV cameras at the entry and exit of the railway station. The victim was seen entering the railway station on a CCTV camera at the entry gate but could not be traced at the station.

Later, the victim was seen in one of the cameras, boarding the unreserved bogey of the Sampark Kranti Rajdhani Express, which had left for Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

The CCTV footage and photographs of the victim were immediately shared with the Government Railway Police in Jaipur and the train was again checked. The victim was identified and was de-boarded from the train by the GRP.

India's researchers to set up peer counselling network, as depression, student suicides see a steep rise- EDEXLIVE

India's researchers to set up peer counselling network, as depression, student suicides see a steep rise


In 2020 alone, five suicide deaths and one suicide attempt were reported in IITs. In the last week, an IIT Gandhinagar researcher ended her life

Parvathi Benu

Edex Live




Image for representational purpose only

Following a spate of suicides by students and researchers, the research community is now considering setting up a platform to help researchers and students who are suicidal. Upon consulting a few faculty members in research institutes, volunteers from the research community have been invited to help their peers out.

"Since the time we put forward this suggestion, a lot of researchers have said that they would want to volunteer. This is overwhelming," says Sachin Batar, a researcher from IISER Pune. "We will segregate them according to geographical locations. They will be the resource people in a particular location and can help out their peers," he says. He added that the researchers are also writing an email to the MHRD asking it to intensify mental health support to students.

Psychiatrist Dr Soumitra Pathare believes that this is indeed a good idea. "Sometimes, it must be the most accessible way of actually addressing the problems. It's a useful strategy," says Pathare, who is also the Director, Centre For Mental Health Law And Policy. "I assume that someone will be training these volunteers. I presume that the volunteers are trained and are given some mentoring," he adds.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank while addressing a parliament session in December 2019 said that in the past five years, 50 IIT students died by suicide in the country. The question had come up while discussing the suicide of Fathima Latheef, a student of IIT Madras, who ended her life in November 2019. Her death had created a lot of outcry among the student community after her suicide note had named three faculty members of the institute as being responsible for harassment, leading to her demise.

Seven months have passed and suicides in IITs are still a matter of concern. A week ago, Piue Ghosh, an IIT Gandhinagar researcher took her life. There have been allegations and speculations about a rift with her faculty guide over patenting her project, which apparently led the researcher to take the extreme step.

How bad are things anyway?

The recent NCRB data tells us that 10,159 students died by suicide in India in 2018. This was the highest number ever in the category. While the number of suicides in IITs over a period of five years until 2019 was 50, 2020 recorded five suicide deaths and one suicide attempt in IITs alone. Of the persons who died, four were students, while one was a faculty in IIT Kanpur.

Most of these research institutes, however, offer counselling services to their students. However, it is not known if they functioned in a full-fledged manner during the pandemic. Earlier this year, IIT Hyderabad had recruited more psychologists on campus.

IIT-Kanpur’s 35-year-old Assistant Professor Suicide: Another Suicide Case in India

IIT-Kanpur’s 35-year-old Assistant Professor Suicide: Another Suicide Case in India

By SAVITA DABRAL 2 days ago24 views





IIT-Kanpur’s 35-year-old Assistant Professor Suicide: Another Suicide Case in India: A 35-year old professor named Pramod Subramanian has been found dead in the campus of IIT-Kanpur which is vacant due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. The assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering of IIT-Kanpur was found hanging in a room on Wednesday.

IIT-Kanpur’s director Prof Abhay Karandikar issued a statement that it is quite shocking and sad that Prof Pramod Subramanian, assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering has left the world tragically and untimely. The director also offered his condolences to the late assistant professor.
IIT Professor Suicide

Abhay Seth, who is Kalyanpur SHO said that the cause of the death couldn’t be clearly known at that time. Providing details about the death, he further added that the professor was hanging with a nylon rope around his neck, however, there wasn’t any suicide note from him. The SHO said that the clear information will be known once the post-mortem report will be out, till then the police will continue their investigation.


Due to the lockdown imposed by the government across the country to contain the novel coronavirus, the schools and colleges are shut and hence the IIT-Kanpur campus was also deserted as there were no students, however, the teachers who reside in the campus were there only.

As per the reports, Professor Pramod Subramanian is survived by his wife and a three-year-old son. His wife is also an assistant professor in the computer science department. The professor has joined the institute couple of years ago and has been involved in several national and international projects. He was a very creative and hardworking person. He was also involved in Cyber Security Innovation Hub.

Some local media reports have revealed that a family dispute might be the reason behind the professor’s suicide which is suspected by the police as well and is continuing their probe in this direction as well.

Did work pressure push IIT-Gn PhD scholar to ‘quit’ life?

Did work pressure push IIT-Gn PhD scholar to ‘quit’ life? 

Read more at:
https://ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad/cover-story/did-work-pressure-push-iit-gn-phd-scholar-to-quit-life/articleshow/76902068.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

IIT Gandhinagar researcher ends life, institute informs family 3 days later. Researchers seek probe

IIT Gandhinagar researcher ends life, institute informs family 3 days later. Researchers seek probe


The deceased was a fifth-year PhD student of IIT Gandhinagar. She hung herself to death inside her hostel room on the night of July 3

Parvathi Benu

Edex Live




IIT Gandhinagar| Pic: PTI

It was 4.30 pm on Monday when Dilip Kumar Ghosh's mobile phone rang. On the other end of the phone was P K Chopra, the Registrar of IIT Gandhinagar, the institute from where his only child Piue pursued her PhD. Little did Ghosh imagine that he was in for the worst news that he would ever hear — Pieu had taken her life three days ago, on July 3.

Piue was a fifth-year PhD scholar in IIT Gandhinagar, who was reportedly about to complete her thesis. Sources tell us that she had ended her life on the night of July 3 by hanging inside her hostel room. However, her parents were kept in the dark about the incident for three days. "She spoke to me for half an hour on Friday night. After that, she spoke to her husband who is in the US. But we never imagined that we wouldn't get to talk to her ever after that," says Dilip Ghosh.

Ghosh tells us that Piue allegedly had gotten into a rift with her research guide regarding patenting her project and demands a proper investigation. "She was such a brilliant student. She would work for 20-22 hours as her research was nearing completion. She was also busy working on the patent," says Ghosh, who had come to IIT for his daughter's last rites.

She hung herself to death in her hostel room

Piue's research guide did not respond to our calls, neither did her coworkers wish to speak about this.

He also says that Piue had a diary in her room. "She wrote that she has no reason to live, the world doesn't need her, she has lost and that she is going to leave. She also wants her body to be donated after her death," he says.

Piue had come home to Bardhaman in Kolkata when the lockdown began and was called back to campus by her research guide, Ghosh tells us.

 "Until July 3, she was under quarantine in her room. The day it was supposed to end, she took her life. My wife and I have no one now. We have no reason to live. We have no one to complain to. There is no God," he says, teary-eyed. "She loved us so much. Her mother is ill and she was very dear to Piue. How can she leave her?" he asks, the pain in his voice evident. Piue's postmortem report is due in four days, he says,

Her friends back home in Bardhaman remember Piue as a gentle, softspoken girl. "We grew up together in Bardhaman, after which, she went to BHU to pursue her BSc. But she always wanted to go back home. She was close to her parents.

 So, her father took early retirement and the family shifted to Kolkata, from where she pursued her BTech," says a friend, who did not wish to be named. "She was under so much pressure in her institute. I've heard that she was on the verge of giving up. In fact, she was called back to the campus in the middle of the pandemic. This is highly unlikely in a research institute," says the friend, who is a researcher in another institute.

50 IIT researchers have ended their lives in the past five years

Research scholars across the country have raised their voices against the incident and are now demanding a probe into the issue. They have also started a change.org petition for the same, which has around 1000 signatures. While addressing a parliament session in December 2019, the HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that in the past five years, 50 IIT students died by suicide in the country. The question had come up while discussing the suicide of Fathima Latheef, a student of IIT Madras, who died by suicide in November 2019, allegedly owing to a faculty member's harassment.

"The IIT Gandhinagar community is deeply saddened by the death of a PhD scholar of Electrical Engineering. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family in this time of grief," the institute said in a release. "We are unable to release any information or comment while the investigation is underway," it added.

If you're suicidal, please seek help:

AASRA: This Mumbai-based NGO is dedicated to people with suicidal tendencies and battling anxiety and depression. Their 24-hour suicide helpline number is +91-22-27546669

Sneha Foundation: This Chennai-based NGO is also dedicated to supporting individuals who are depressed, distressed, or suicidal. Their 24-hour helpline +91-44-24640050

iCall: Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline for the psychologically distressed has a team of mental health professionals helping individuals across various languages and regions. The helpline number (+91-22-25521111) is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.

7 Cups of Tea: This website and app (available on iOS and Android phones) is an online chat platform offering live support to the depressed and anxious.

The Pink Project: This Mumbai-based mental health intiative, founded by two psychologists, is offering free online counselling during the COVID-19 crisis.

People Tree Maarga: Bengaluru-based People Tree is offering free telephonic counseling between 10 am and 11 pm to those stressed or anxious due to COVID-19. The helpline number is 080-46659999

_vibewithvishuddha: This page on Instagram encourages you to talk about your feelings and emotions or just vent out. Just message them a 'hi' and they'll get in touch.

IIT-Kanpur assistant professor kills self at campus - The New Indian Express

IIT-Kanpur assistant professor kills self at campus

35-year-old Pramod Subramanyan's body was found hanging in a room on the campus and police have launched a probe into the matter.

Published: 09th July 2020 12:46 AM

Image for representational purposes.
By Namita Bajpai

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: An assistant professor of computer science and engineering department of prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) committed suicide at its campus on Wednesday evening.

As per campus sources, 35-year-old Pramod Subramanyan's body was found hanging in a room on the campus. Police have launched a probe into the matter. Kalyanpur police on coming to know about the incident reached the institute, brought down the body and sent it for postmortem examination.

Later in a press communique undersigned by IIT-K director Prof Abhay Karandikar read: "I am saddened to inform you about the tragic and untimely demise of Prof. Pramod Subramanyan, assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering today afternoon. In him, we have lost a bright and rising star in computer science in the country. We deeply mourn his demise and pray to the Almighty to give strength to his family. May his soul rest in peace."

His body has sent for postmortem. The professor used a nylon rope to hang himself. However, no suicide note was recovered from his room. "As a result, the cause of suicide could not be known immediately," said Kalyanpur SHO Ashwani Pandey.

Currently, the institute is almost vacant due to COVID-19 with no students present except for the faculty members who reside on the campus.

(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call AASRA's 24x7 Helpline: +91-9820466726 for assistance)

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35-year-old IIT-Kanpur professor found hanging on campus

THE TRIBUNE

The institute is almost vacant due to the Covid-19 outbreak with no students present except for the faculty who reside on the campus

Posted: Jul 09, 2020 09:52 AM (IST)
Updated : 7 hours ago


Photo for representation only

Kanpur, July 9

Pramod Subramanian, an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kanpur, was found dead on campus which has been deserted due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.

The 35-year-old professor was found hanging in a room on the campus on Wednesday.

IIT-Kanpur issued a statement by institute director Prof Abhay Karandikar saying, "I am saddened to inform you about the tragic and untimely demise of Prof Pramod Subramanian, assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering.

"In him, we have lost a bright and rising star in computer science in the country. We deeply mourn and pray to the Almighty to give strength to his family. May his soul rest in peace."

Kalyanpur SHO Abhay Seth said the cause of death could not be known immediately.

"He was found hanging with a nylon rope around his neck and has not left behind any suicide note. We will wait for the post-mortem report and continue investigation," the police official added.

The institute is almost vacant due to the Covid-19 outbreak with no students present except for the faculty who reside on the campus.

If IIT Bombay Can, Why Not Others? - NDTV,

If IIT Bombay Can, Why Not Others? 

NSUI Opposes UGC's Decision On Final Exams
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released new guidelines for exams and academic session. The higher education regulator has decided to hold the terminal semester or final year examinations by the end of September, 2020 in offline online or blended (online + offline) mode.

Education | Edited by Maitree Baral | Updated: Jul 7, 2020 8:42 am IST


The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released new guidelines for exams and academic session.

New Delhi:

The National Students Union of India (NSUI), a students' body affiliated with the Congress, has said the Centre’s decision to hold final semester exams to be a "narrow-minded view" and has said "it will endanger student’s health". The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released new guidelines for exams and academic session today. The higher education regulator has decided to hold the final semester or final year examinations by the end of September, 2020 in offline, online or blended (online + offline) mode.

“If IIT Bombay can, why not other universities?” NSUI’s Ruchi Gupta has said while responding to the government’s decision to hold final semester or year exams of universities and colleges across India.

Meanwhile, the exams for rest of the students have been cancelled due to the health risks and containment measures adopted by the government against the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, it's a tragedy to take the vastness of education - the experience of university, the diversity, the development of perspectives, critical thinking etc - and reduce it to a number received in an exam. This tragedy is brought out even more starkly if one takes an indepth look at the quality of the examination system in our country - rife with corruption, arbitrariness, delays, ineptitude, social bias, inequities and incompetence, the NSUI has said in its official statement.

Finally, the concern about devaluation of degree if the final exam is not conducted is exaggerated and misplaced. For most undergraduate courses, the final semester is only 1 semester out of 6 semesters. The purpose of exams in most often to filter out students - since the number of aspirants vastly outnumber opportunities - and it is easy to extrapolate relative ranking from past semesters and other internal assessments, it added.

On students who come from rural areas, the NSUI has said that these students from rural or marginalised backgrounds suffer from unequal access to both internet-enabled devices and internet connectivity. At least two students have committed suicide due to inability to participate in online classes.

It has also mentioned about the low attendance in online classes, which were started by many universities during the lockdown period. Online classes too have been a sham with a massive drop in attendance and the back and forth expected of classroom lectures, the Congress’ affiliated students' body has said.

On offline exams it has said that, "many students were shunted homes in a rush and students have reported that they are without books or study material. Even if exam centers manage social distancing, travel from their homes to universities will certainly lead to possible health exposure, putting both students and their families at risk."

On the e-book 'Young Mental Health' - The Hindu,

On the e-book 'Young Mental Health'

Anwesh Pokkuluri
JUNE 23, 2020 11:41 IST



Reach out to your friends 

Photo Credit:  VSanandhakrishna

By talking about what is bothering us, we take away its power to control us. 

Weeks before the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement on Section 377, a young man shared his journey, now published in the e-book 

‘Young Mental Health’

Trigger warning: Suicidal ideation

The first time I came out to a friend (a day after I had come out to my junior in reciprocation), we were in a class together, I scribbled on a paper that I was not straight and started crying. He told me it was okay and hugged me after the class which felt very comforting. I came out to a few close friends after that, all of them received it well and offered any support I needed. I came out to my parents in November 2015 and started coming out to more of my friends and colleagues after that. A common response from my parents and some of the friends was, ‘You could have told us what was going on much earlier instead of going through it alone all these years.’

I realised that it was true, that I could have shared this truth with someone much before and even if they had not known how to accept it, it would have at least given me space to talk about it instead of having to struggle to find strength to deal with it all alone.

And the first time I talked about my mental health was at work with a colleague (July 2015). I had severe suicidal ideation one day... I needed to distract myself and at that point I didn’t know how to lie anymore so I took a colleague out and told her what had just happened. She talked me out of it for the time being and I visited a psychiatrist after that.

In my experience, many of the times I confided in someone about my mental health, more often than not, people could relate to what I was saying and narrated their own experiences of loneliness or the feeling of hopelessness, and also expressed how lonely it feels in those times. Many of these times, people thanked me for being vulnerable around them and said it encouraged them to open up about their own struggles. How relieving it feels when you see you’re not alone! It feels like when we share our story with someone, we take on some of their strength as well to fight our battles. It’s not as tiring when we don’t have to fight alone.

That’s why if there’s anything that I can advise my younger self, it is to talk. We’re only as sick as our secrets, and by talking about what is bothering us, we take away its power to control us. Be it sexuality or mental health, I wish I had opened up sooner.

The following are words from a Netflix special called Nanette by an Australian stand-up comedian Hannah Gadsby (who is queer as well and talks about mental health):

‘Stories hold our cure. I just needed my story heard, my story felt and understood by individuals with minds of their own. Because, like it or not, your story... is my story. And my story... is your story. I just don’t have the strength to take care of my story any more. I don’t want my story defined by anger. All I can ask is just please help me take care of my story. Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that... is the focus of the story we need.’

To sum up, I would advise anyone who’s feeling a lack of safety (including my younger self) to look out for people who value authenticity and can handle being vulnerable, and share their stories. More often than you’d think, you’re met with understanding, comfort, relief, connection, strength. Also, we can all be vulnerable about our struggles in our everyday lives, which can create a safe space for everyone.

...I’ve been going to my current therapist for three years now. We’ve identified that I have accumulated layers of trauma, my own and intergenerational — my parents’ inter-caste marriage and my mother’s family disowning her, me growing up gay in denial, the sudden death of my brother, unhealthy relationships. My therapist made me see how I didn’t give space to myself to process the grief of my brother’s death because I was worried about how my parents were handling it and that I had to be there for them. In the process, I forgot how to emote and everything became cognitive.

My therapist started with how to identify emotions and feel them in real time, we’re now working on how to change thought patterns, and how to unlearn unhealthy coping mechanisms — some of them like fight, flight, fawn (people pleasing in order to deflect from letting myself feel), freeze (dissociate, again to distract from feeling). We’re working on cultivating radical acceptance towards trauma.

When I first started going to therapy — and I notice this among a lot of other people as well — I wanted a quick fix to my ‘negative’ emotions which had started to feel overwhelming. I believed that once I stopped feeling sad or afraid or angry, everything would work out great.

Thinking we, or our emotions, need fixing feeds into a loop of believing we are broken in some way. And this not only doesn’t help in our healing but also sets us on a pattern of new maladaptive mechanisms. Especially for those of us young people who have not felt adequate sense of safety while growing up and picked up unhealthy patterns in our formative years, we may question comfort and love in our later relationships, and are prone to stay in abusive relationships. It’s imperative we hold space for ourselves and form support systems.

Anwesh Pokkuluri is an IIT graduate who took on the broader legal system, leading a group of other IITians to file a petition against Section 377 in the Supreme Court. In Young Mental Health, Pokkuluri builds on his story shared with The Health Collective, a space for conversations around mental health.

If you are in a crisis and feel suicidal, call Sneha at 044-24640050.

Excerpted from Young Mental Health by Amrita Tripathi and Meera Haran Alva (Simon and Schuster), available on Amazon.in and Healthcollective.in

Mental health is a collective responsibility: The person is not the problem - INDIAN EXPRESS

Mental health is a collective responsibility: The person is not the problem

Imagine: We have created the toxic society in which young people are struggling to survive.


Written by Shelja Sen | New Delhi | Updated: June 21, 2020 9:45:50 am

XReach out, hold tight: We need to reflect on how to help each other overcome mental-health impediments. (Source: getty images)

Right from an early age, we are recruiting our children into believing that there is one right way to live their life. In a talk or in a workshop, I generally ask the audience if they know somebody who has experienced mental health struggles. Some hands shoot up right away, then others start raising their hands tentatively, looking around and taking solace in the sense of solidarity until all the hands go up. Then, I make it a little more difficult and check if they know somebody who has dealt with suicidal thoughts. Majority of the hands go up again. It is all around us — in our homes, our schools, colleges, workspaces, public places — staring back at us, asking us to look, listen. But we turn away, leaving them with their silences. Maybe sometimes, that silence and shame becomes too much to live with. It takes the death of a public figure to remind us how much mental health matters. For the coming weeks, there will be a flurry of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts by well-meaning people, but then it will all go away, as it generally does. Do we realise how difficult it is for people living with depression or anxiety to be their own advocates at every step, especially when they have been convinced that something is inherently wrong with them — that they are the problem?

The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem

Right from an early age, we are recruiting our children into believing that there is one right way to live their life. They are constantly struggling against the illusionary yardstick of success. They are being sold the idea that the higher they go, the better they will be. But then they wonder why every rung up leads to more misery? Off-the-chart suicide rates of IIT aspirants in Kota coaching centres should shake us out of our collective stupor of what we see as the making of a “good life”. A study conducted by Assocham in 2018 found that 42.5 per cent of employees are struggling with depression and/or anxiety in their high-pressure jobs. They possibly climbed the ladder of success and security to find it is a myth. They have internalised the propaganda that the only way they are worth something is if they get into a good college, “be productive” and get into a financially stable career. Therefore, it is no surprise that the chilling statistics indicate that one in four young persons is struggling with depression or anxiety and that India tops the world in youth suicide.

Read| Imagine: It’s our society that is broken, not our kids

The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem, and the problem is social!*

Shiv is a young man I met who had been lured into the society’s idea of success. In our discussion, he started realising that his company’s work culture of constant pressure, of “never being good enough” was pushing him into depression. As we unspooled this problematic notion of success, he realised, “My life can’t be just about meeting the next target, pay my bills and die.” He renegotiated his purpose in life, had a clear chat with his boss on what he would be able to deliver and started doing things that aligned with what he valued the most. For example, getting together with his old band and jamming every weekend and not “wasting precious hours of my life thinking of how to get ahead.”

There is much talk about the “epidemic” of mental health problems reaching unprecedented proportions. We have been made to believe that it can all be understood as “chemical imbalance” but that does not hold much water in the face of growing research and begs the question, “Who has a chemically balanced brain and what does it look like?” To the point of being provocative, I can say it is pretty fictional and not helpful as it locates the problem within the person. It is an extremely complex problem within our socio-cultural context which needs a nuanced understanding. Our identities are formed at the intersection of gender, sexuality, age, caste, class, religion, looks (let’s not underestimate the demand for “fair & lovely”) and the most important of it all — social acceptance and social success. Mental health problems as chemical imbalance absolves us of the collective responsibility we need to take as adults. This pushes us to think it is not our problem and we end up making the problem individualistic, leading to, what I call, the 3 Ds.

Dismissal — trivialising the problem with normative judgements such as “Stop complaining all the time”; “This is so silly”; “You just need to be stronger”.

Defining — making the problem the single story about them — “I don’t think you will be able to do much in life if you are so weak.”

Dumping — mental-health problems hide issues of gross social injustice. For example, women being diagnosed with depression when they react to marital abuse, young girls who feel rejected and suicidal as they do not fit the rigid definition of “fair & lovely.” Their mental-health problems are just a mirror of a society that is unfair and damaged.

Sometimes, all people need are these simple messages:

“I see you” “I hear you” — People are multi-storied so let’s not define them by single stories of “failure” and “unworthiness.” This does not mean we have to “be positive” and “look at the silver lining” as that can be quite dismissive. It means to listen to their problems and also keep sight of their stories of courage, hopes and dreams.

“Tell me how I can help” — We might not know what to say or do, so asking might help. It is easy to get into the “let’s fix it” or advising mode but step back from it, as it might stop them from accessing their own skills and abilities to find their solution. “I have your back” — If each person knew that there is somebody out there who will accept them the way they are no matter how damaged they are feeling.
It is not a mental-health problem but a problem of social justice

As a narrative therapist (Narrative Therapy was pioneered by Michael White & David Epston), I strongly believe that the solution is not an individual’s or a family’s responsibility. It is a social problem, and, therefore, we need to take the lens of social justice. There is an old legend-now-turned-to-a-metaphor that canaries were sent down into coal mines to test for gas leaks. Our young people are the canaries of our present time. We have created the toxic society in which they are struggling to survive. Maybe, this pandemic is an opportunity for us to let go of the deadwood of social expectations of success and carve out something new collaboratively. Rather than quick solutions, here are some questions we can reflect on:

What do you think are the social beliefs and norms that contribute to the rising mental health problems?

How fair are these social norms and expectations?

In what ways can you resist these expectations and support others?

We need nothing short of a social movement to make this happen. We have lost too many lives and too much time. Nobody is going to come and sort this out for us. We have to do it ourselves.

*Quoted by David Denborough, narrative practitioner, in a workshop

(Dr Shelja Sen is a narrative therapist, co-founder Children First, writer, and, in this column, she curates the know-how of the children and young people she works with. Write to her shelja.sen@childrenfirstindia.com)

Student suicide rising, every one hour one student commits suicide in India

Student suicide rising, every one hour one student commits suicide in India

In Indian states, Maharashtra has the highest number of suicides in 2018 with 1448 with an average of 4 suicides every day.
By TPT Bureau | Agencies
-June 19, 2020



According to NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau), every hour, at least, one student commits suicides and 28 suicides each day are recorded on an average. Its data shows that 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018 with an increase from 9950 cases in 2017, and 9478 in 2016. In Indian states, Maharashtra has the highest number of suicides in 2018 with 1448 with an average of 4 suicides every day.

“Live a little every day, ek hi zindagi mili hai”, you have got only one life, this is the abstract of the eight-page long suicide note written by a deceased postgraduate student at IIT-Hyderabad who was found dead on July 2 last year in his hostel room.

Pressure Comes from Different Sides

It might be easy for others to say that “coward” people do suicide, they don’t think about their family or anyone but it is the worst kind of feeling which only the sufferer may experience. There are many reasons for students to be under pressure and that pressure somehow becomes unbearable for them. Education is the point that tops the list of pressure. For instance, in April last year, 19 students in Telangana committed suicide a week after the exam results were announced. In 2018, 12 students including six girls ended their lives a single day after the release of the board exam’s results. Taking the recent cases into consideration, on 18th June 2020, two inter students committed suicide in the state on Thursday.

According to an interview given by a psychiatrist Mr. Murgesh Vaishanv “Stress, anxiety disorder, depression, personality disorder- all these things result in mental illness that leads a student towards suicide. This happens when the students are not familiar with/satisfied with his or her surroundings”. Although fight or argument in friendships and relationships is also a prominent reason for having these feelings.

Two Persons can Save Each Other
Now, why do they do suicide? There are so many people around everyone and hardly anyone is alone nowadays, then why these types of cases are increasing. If we hear to Md. Sanjeer Alam, “A student commits suicide when he does not get emotional support at the time of stress or anxiety. This might happen when individual expectations are too high. Parental and peer pressure also have an adverse effect”.

In 2017, a survey report was released by Lokniti-CSDS released a survey that states that one out of every fourth youth moderately suffered from depression, loneliness, worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts. It also states that four out of every 10 people are going through depression.

Now, the question which arises here is, why are the number of depressed people in our country shooting up? Why are very much busy in our lives that we do not have time to listen to the other person or at least say to them that ‘you can tell me, I am here’. According to doctors, and psychiatrists depression, anxiety, and other mental issues can be tackled at home and will never even raise if we talk to our parents and friends

Author
Kanupriya

Publisher Name
THE POLICY TIMES

Publisher Logo

The futile search for rationale in the act of suicide,

The futile search for rationale in the act of suicide
By Bhavdeep Kang

Suicide seems irrational, inexplicable, illogical. We are wired to look for meaning, because without it, there is only chaos.

Pixabay

Suicide is a paradox. An act where the victim and perpetrator are one and the same, where an organism hardwired for self-preservation chooses to self-destruct. An act which evokes paradoxical feelings of empathy and alienation. Empathy, because deep down we are all capable of self-harm, and alienation, because it defies our most fundamental evolutionary instinct, to survive.

The solitary nature of the act, in a species designed for social behaviour, makes it still more disturbing. We search obsessively for rationalisation. In the absence of closure in the form of an explanatory suicide note, we look for triggers: a former lover, a sadistic employer, a band of cyber-bullies, or a demanding family; financial ruin, public humiliation, ill-health or an altruistic motive. Sometimes, our survivor's guilt and anger at the pointless waste of a life is misdirected and we lapse into scapegoating.

The tragic death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has opened the floodgates to recriminations. Bollywood's power elite has been castigated on social media for allegedly ill-treating the young actor and sabotaging his career. The outsider versus the establishment narrative has caught the imagination of the Twitterati, prompting certain members of the Bollywood aristocracy to hit back.

Assigning blame is a desperate effort to make sense of a senseless act, but is itself illogical. Every profession has its bullies and exclusive clubs that make outsiders feel unwelcome. Why should the entertainment industry be any different?

Many young outsiders like Rajkumar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ayushmann Khurrana and so on, have made their mark in Bollywood in recent years. Granted, they may not command the big budgets and massive fees that the more well-entrenched stars enjoy, but have achieved tremendous success nonetheless. Perhaps they were fortunate and did not provoke the ire of the brat-pack, or perhaps they didn't care two hoots if they did.

Which brings us to the question of being “strong enough” to withstand the slings and arrows of an unkind world. The suicide victim is characterised as “weak”. The premium on strength is ritualised in various ways. In certain communities, running the gauntlet of physical or verbal abuse is a rite of passage. Witness the hazing that newcomers in college go through, before they are accepted as members of the student body. Sadistic ragging has claimed more lives than we care to acknowledge and to describe the victims as weak is to add insult to injury.

Depression does not discriminate between the so-called weak and strong. It knows no boundaries of age, class, gender or education. It could be induced by psychological or physiological (as appears to have been the case with Sushant Singh) factors and aggravated by stress, which in turn may be caused by any number of things: professional setbacks, social isolation, etc. It is hard to determine how a melancholic train of thought is set in motion and where it leads.

Few of us can claim never to have experienced depression, however fleetingly. Who can forget the violent emotional storms of adolescence? Many of us, in the throes of a broken relationship, will have had dark thoughts and vague ideas of ending it all. A minority may have escaped the plunge into despair altogether, but most others will have confronted the dark side and survived, congratulating themselves on their strength of mind. The truth is that they are more lucky than strong.

Depression is a condition with potentially serious outcomes, like diabetes or heart disease. Precautionary measures and/or medication are just as necessary. To treat it as a form of self-indulgence or weakness is like a heart patient shutting out the necessity of exercise and a controlled diet. Sadly, the cultural emphasis on mental strength may prevent the victim from reaching out for help when they needs it most.

Family, friends, spiritual advisors and mental wellness professionals can play a critical role in keeping depressed individuals from falling off the precipice. Everybody needs someone to reach out to at any time, for any reason. The “3 am friend” is a necessary feature of the modern urban family, a tribal unit not necessarily related by blood. But no matter how strong the support structures are, they may not always succeed. It is all too easy to confuse self-pity with depression and tell our friends to “get a grip” or “snap out of it”, thereby aggravating the problem.

Every 40 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world, commits suicide. More lives are lost to suicide every year than a whole decade of war and terrorism. Our response to news of suicide is visceral, particularly when the victim is an apparently healthy and successful youngster. It seems irrational, inexplicable, illogical. We are wired to look for meaning, because without it, there is only chaos. So we try to solve the unsolvable. But some questions don't have answers and all we can do is to try and ensure it doesn't happen to someone we know.

The writer is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.

Governments pass the buck of suicides, every time - QRIOUS

16JUN, 20

Governments pass the buck of suicides, every time

Apart from the occasional uproar that we witness when a famous personality has committed suicide, we as a society seldom talk or discuss or take enough measures to at least minimize the suicides that are happening in our country.

BY QRIUS

by Dr. Sipoy Sarveswar

The recent news on the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput has come as a shock for the whole country. Celebrities have expressed their shock and condolences on the demise, from politicians to Bollywood’ fraternity’ and cricketers. His close friends have blamed themselves for not being able to render emotional support to him to battle his depression and mental health issue. It took us one more celebrity suicide and demise for the celebrities and millennials to acknowledge that mental health issues and depression are real and that there is dire need to reach out to the people who are close to us. Another set of friends, as well as the critics, has blamed the Bollywood ‘fraternity’ for not recognizing and seeking measures to reach out to their ‘community’ of actors.

On similar lines, last year, in July, Cafe Coffee Day founder and VG Siddhartha- a business tycoon allegedly committed suicide because of the financial problems and setbacks. 

The two deaths of famous and well-established personalities also triggered the debate around mental health and depression as potential reasons for suicides. Suicides are a peculiar problem that haunts academicians as they couldn’t decipher potential established patterns that one can observe and pose a remedy of the situation as an attempt to prevent suicide. Every suicide seems to pose a unique pattern that cannot be collated and used to avoid the suicides, possibly.

Apart from the occasional uproar that we witness when a famous personality has committed suicide, we as a society seldom talk or discuss or take enough measures to at least minimize the suicides that are happening in our country. 

According to Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) (2018) report published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI, in the last five years (2014-2018) the total number of reported suicides are 6,60,700. However, the other independent organization estimates a much larger number of suicides than the ADSI reported data. According to the report each day, there are 362 suicides reported in these past five years, which is, for every hour, 15 people committed suicide.

But who are these people committing suicides? 

In the total number of reported victims of suicide, 22.4% are Daily wage earners, 17.1% are housewives, 9.8% are Self Employed, 9.6% are unemployed, 7.7% are in the farming sector, and 7.6% are students according to the ADSI (2018) report. 

Farmers’ suicides are a recognized problem because of the agricultural distress and the respect we hold for our food producers. However, there are no substantial measures taken to prevent even the farmers’ suicides, apart from states coming up with monetary compensation for the victims of suicide in the farming sector. On 2nd January 2018, the then Minister of State for Home Affairs replied to the lower house of Indian Parliament that almost 26 students committed suicide every day (more than one student committed suicide every hour). Nearly 75,000 students are victims of suicide from 2007-2016.

After the rise in student’s suicide in IITs, IIT Madras, IIM Kashipur, and a large number of student hostels, Kota in Rajasthan, installed or contemplated to use ‘Fan Bush Protection Device’ to prevent these events. This device would not withstand the weight of more than 40 Kilos if students tried to hang themselves. One of my friends in IIT Hyderabad informed me of the institutes’ measures to remove one or two bolts that hold the door, which will help break the door quickly in case of a suicide. During discussions with my friend, he drew an analogy that we are in the habit of cursing someone if they happen to come under the wheel of our vehicle, saying, ‘did you get only my vehicle to die for?’. We are culturally trained to not to see the larger picture but to have an objection to someone dying in front of our vehicle. The educational institutes and system are trying to do the same by not addressing the issue holistically but coming up with measures to stop suicides in their respective institutions. If only all the academic knowledge is mustered and put to use to minimize the student’s suicides, maybe we will not be reported as a country with the highest suicide death rate in the world.

The general arguments that propel in the buzz of a famous personality’ suicide can be categorized as 

Individual’s problem- Asking those who are depressed to reach out to the people and not to commit suicide. Ironically the people who are going through depression may not realize it, and the conditions we have successfully created in the society may not give them the confidence to reach out for help. 

Society’s (community) problem- These sets of arguments (a) blame themselves for not able to provide emotional support. (b) Blame friends, relatives or the ‘imagined’ community such as film, media and academic fraternity and so on, for not able to either reach out personally based on their personal relationship or not able to create a conducive environment as the community that would have prevented the suicide of the person. Or (c) Advocate to reach out to friends and family or to create a society that will not stigmatize mental health issues and provides an opportunity for the depressed to reach out for help without being judged.

It is appalling to see how the State and the free-market Capitalism induced neo-liberal economic policies and systems are always gone scot-free without being held accountable for by the members of the society. 

As Yuval Noah Harari (2011) argues, the systematic intervention of state and market in the lives of individuals distanced family and community influence from the individual’s life. The state and market dictate every aspect of our lives. It commodifies necessities such as education, health, and water. 

Crony capitalism influenced state policies
Weakens the labor laws
Exploits our natural resources
Pollutes our environment
Creates unliveable situations
Taxes us heavily
Widens the economic inequalities
Leads towards privatization and commodification of education
Sells us unachievable dreams
Keeps us in the limbo of unhappiness
Creates economic, social and job insecurities
Make us adopt uncertainty as a part of our culture

Then all of a sudden, when suicides happen, the state and market don’t own any responsibility and pass on the buck to the individual and community in the name of mental health and depression.

To make some sense, let’s use the language of the market and state here for a minute. Hypothetically, imagine a Boeing 777-300 ER with a seating capacity of 345 passengers crashing every day in a year. How would State, Market, and individuals in the society react? They would want the government to take responsibility and resolve the issue. The number of passengers mentioned in the above hypothetical situation is lesser than the number of suicides reported per day by the ADSI (2018) report.

There is a dire need for our all-powerful market controlled state to start owning up the responsibility (if not all of it) to address this issue, which the country suffers. I also acknowledge the importance of the role of the community in addressing this issue. Mental Health issues are real, and depression is not a matter of joke. Still, without addressing the problem holistically from all possible angles, we may not potentially resolve this issue and minimize the instances of suicides in India. If we fail to collectively pressurize our government to provide concrete solutions in addressing this issue, the suicides are going to be part of our daily reality. A famous person’s suicide is going to be fodder for our social media updates in the momentary buzz, creating a mere chance to express our shallow solidarities with the victims of suicide and in continuing to add useless analysis and news in the media outlets.

This article was first published in The ArmChair Journal

21-year-old IIT-Tirupati student commits suicide ..

21-year-old IIT-Tirupati student commits suicide ..
Read more at:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/76161915.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Indian Man Kills Pregnant Wife In Murder-Suicide In New Jersey,

Indian Man Kills Pregnant Wife In Murder-Suicide In New Jersey



NEW YORK – A 35-year-old Indian woman, who was five months’ pregnant, was found murdered in her apartment and her husband was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. The husband Man Mohan Mall’s body was found in the Hudson River.

Garima Kothari, a chef, was found unresponsive with trauma to her upper body on April 26 by Jersey City police officers, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Following an autopsy by the Regional Medical Examiner, Kothari’s death was ruled homicide. She suffered multiple injuries in her upper body.

Kothari’s husband Man Mohan Mall (37) was found dead in the Hudson River in Jersey City. According to a report in the Daily Voice, Kothari was a talented chef and Mall was an alumnus of the India Institute of Technology (IIT).

Lockdown misery and death for migrant worker

A worker on condition of anonymity said, the deceased was upset after construction stopped on March 25 and he was missing his wife and children.

Published: 12th May 2020 09:09 AM | Last



For representational purposes
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: It was poverty and joblessness that had driven the 29-year-old labourer from West Bengal’s Malda district to the seemingly greener pastures of Odisha three months back. Now, his dreams along with his body lay buried even as migrant workers of the country experience the biggest crisis of recent history.Employed at a construction site in IIT-Bhubaneswar, he was found hanging at an under construction building on the campus under Jatni police limits on Sunday morning. The police investigation suggested the worker committed suicide.

A worker on condition of anonymity said, the deceased was upset after construction stopped on March 25 and he was missing his wife and children. “He spoke to his family members three to four days back on video call. He used to frequently tell us that he wanted to return to his village and also went with a group of workers to meet their employer recently requesting to facilitate their return,” he added.

The deceased was observing fasting (roza) during the holy month of Ramzan and he did not return to his bed on Saturday night. When his associates woke up in wee hours of Sunday to have pre-dawn meal (sehri), they found him missing. He was later found hanging in an under-construction building on the institute campus.

His body were sent to his family members back home on Monday. The police directed the workers’ supervisor to buy a coffin to transport the body in an ambulance and a same was bought for `5,500. At least three associates of the deceased hailing from the district handed over his mortal remains to his family on Monday morning and later, they were sent to a quarantine facility by the authorities there.

“There are about 1,000 migrant workers staying in three different colonies on IIT campus and they are natives of different states,” said an electrician, Salman Khan of Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district. Khan said their employer is giving them `400 to `500 per week and they were purchasing ration from it but the amount is not sufficient for many labourers, who are staying here with their families.

A tiles mason, Anikul Hassan of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, said their employer assured that the work will commence few days after the first phase of the lockdown but construction work started only after May 3.

Migrant worker, stuck on IIT-Bhubaneswar campus due to lockdown, ends life

Migrant worker, stuck on IIT-Bhubaneswar campus due to lockdown, ends life

The deceased mason and other members of his group reportedly had an argument with their employer a few days back over making arrangements for their return to their native villages.

Published: 10th May 2020 05:44 PM | Last 

IIT Bhubaneswar. (Photo| Facebook/ IIT Bhubaneswar)
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: A migrant worker allegedly committed suicide at an under construction building on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology's (IIT) campus Jatni police limits late on Saturday night.

Police confirmed that a migrant worker hanged himself. However, they are yet to ascertain all the other details, including the name and address of the deceased.

Sources said the deceased, who was working as a mason, was a native of Malda district in West Bengal. He was reportedly upset as there was no work in the institute after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 leaving him with very little money. The deceased is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

The deceased mason and other members of his group reportedly had an argument with their employer a few days back over making arrangements for their return to their native villages. The police had to step in to resolve the matter.

"There are about one thousand migrant workers staying in three different colonies on IIT campus and they are natives of different States," said an electrician, Salman Khan of Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district. Their employer was paying them Rs 400 to Rs 500 per week and they were purchasing ration using that money. The labourers who were living with their families soon fell short of money.

A bus from Bihar reportedly carried the workers stuck here on Saturday.

"In our group, there are seven persons and the employer turned a deaf ear towards our request of arranging a bus saying that a passenger vehicle cannot be arranged for such a small batch," said Khan, adding that there are also many workers from Uttar Pradesh, who are staying in other colonies on the campus.

Khan and his group are not arranging a private vehicle as it would cost a lot to each one of them and they alleged that they were also not able to take the help of the State Government due to the restrictions on not leaving the campus.

A tiles mason, Anikul Hassan of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, said their employer assured that the work will commence few days after the first phase of the lockdown was imposed in March but so far the construction has not started.

"Our employer is telling us that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing migrant worker's entry into the State. We are running out of money from the last three months and now we are desperate to return and meet our families for Eid," he added.

Meanwhile, the police said they have registered a case of unnatural death and further probe into the matter is on.

Operation Eklavya in Action at Premier Institutes

Operation Eklavya in Action at Premier Institutes
India is neglecting caste-based discrimination in higher educational institutions at its own peril.

Subhash Gatade
07 May 2020

It was exactly 13 years back that the Thorat Committee, constituted in September 2006 to enquire into allegations of differential treatment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students at the premier medical institute, AIIMS—was released.

The first of its kind in independent India, this three-member committee led by then chairman of the University Grants Commission, Sukhdeo Thorat, had looked deeply into the many shades of discrimination faced by students of non-elite castes in the institute.

What it discovered after talking to students and faculty was, to say the least, shocking. Some 72% of SC/ST students mentioned facing some discrimination during the teaching sessions. 

Second, caste-based discrimination was prevalent in the hostels, for instance around 88% students reported experiencing of social isolation in various forms. The committee’s report also outlined the discrimination faced by SC/ST professors.

This context frames the alleged suicide attempt of a female doctor a fortnight ago in the same institute. The doctor, who worked at the Dental Research Centre of AIIMS, was allegedly facing sexual harassment and caste discrimination. This is another reminder that there has not been a qualitative change in the institute in the long years since the Thorat Committee report.

The report had recommended joint committees of students, residents and faculty to examine the social atmosphere; developing mechanisms to regain social harmony; formation of an “equal opportunity office” to deal with all issues of non-elite caste students; encouraging students of all identities to participate in cultural and sporting activities; creating a roster system for selecting senior residents and faculty. It had also asked that the Ministry of Health should closely monitor how reservation is implemented at AIIMS.

The recent attempted suicide is disturbing, for the doctor had repeatedly written to the authorities, including the Resident Doctor's Association, to examine the issues she was raising. The Association had written to the concerned authorities, including the health ministry, to take necessary action, which was never done.

Question is: was the administration’s inaction a result of caste blindness or deliberate neglect of a marginalised student? Definitely, the callousness of AIIMS’ administration is no exception. 

On 22 May 2019, Payal Tadvi, a promising doctor who belonged to the Bhil-Muslim community, ended her life in a teaching hospital in Mumbai due to ill-treatment by her seniors. The 26-year-old would have become the first doctor from her community, were she still alive today.

Payal had also complained to the management of her hospital about continuous harassment by her elite-caste colleagues, who were her seniors, Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehra and Anikta Khandelwal. She had alleged not being allowed to perform surgeries. She had confided in her parents and to her husband Dr Salman Tadvi about this and other harassment.

After Payal had died, Thorat said that the premier institutions are filled with bitterness about marginalised students. “Nearly 25-30 students in the top educational institutes have died in the last decade or so, but the subsequent governments have failed to take any concrete policy decision to end caste discrimination...,” he told the New Indian Express.

The logic of purity and pollution, which is the basis of caste and its exclusions, manifested itself in IIT Madras as well, where separate entrances to the dining hall were delineated for vegetarians and non-vegetarians in 2018. The Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, a student group within the institute, had brought this issue to national attention. The segregation was withdrawn after tremendous public uproar. “Caste masquerades as something else in ‘modern’ society. In IIT Madras campus, it manifests itself as separate entrance, utensils, dining area and wash area in the mess for vegetarian and non-vegetarian students...,” the students of the APSC said.

In her essay, “An anatomy of the caste culture at IIT-Madras”, Ajantha Subramanian, a professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard University, investigates caste and the notion of “meritocracy”. She notes, “Caste and casteism have shaped IIT Madras for a very long time, generally to the benefit of upper castes”. Until 2008, when a legal sanction was given to reservation of seats in educational institutes for members of the other backward classes or OBCs, the general category made up 77.5% of student admissions. This, as Subramanian points out, indicates that mostly members of elite castes populated premier institutes. She wrote: “Not only students, the composition of the faculty at IIT-Madras is also overwhelmingly upper caste,” she notes, with 464 professors drawn from the general category, 59 OBCs, 11 SCs, and only two STs.

Rohith Vemula’s case was no different. Deeply-entrenched caste prejudices in India’s society and academic institutions, he said, reduced the value of a to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. “To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind,” his unforgettable and deeply poignant suicide note of January 2016 said.

This promising student of Hyderabad Central University, who yearned to become a science writer and was part of the Ambedkar Students Association, was unjustly suspended by the University in August 2015 after an alleged altercation with Hindutvadis students.

Rohith’s death led to a national uproar and created a pan-Indian student uprising whose focus was on justice for a young scholar’s “institutional murder”. There were demands for a Rohith Act to protect students from marginalised communities in higher educational institutions, much on the lines of the Nirbhaya Act. It was supposed to be an instrument to fight caste oppression and ensure punishment and dismissal of those who discriminate on grounds of identity.

What remains unanswered till date is how many students who could have been role models for their communities and the entire country will have to sacrifice their lives before we rise from our deep slumber. Should not society do a soul-searching for its complicity in these denials, humiliations and deaths. The poet Meena Kandasamy had written after Rohith’s death that the suicide of a Dalit student is not just an “individual exit strategy” but “...a shaming of society that has failed him or her.”

Yet time does not seem to be reducing caste discrimination and oppression, rather it is increasingly being normalised. The arms of the state; the legislature, executive and even judiciary, seem to be wanting on this score.

Caste asymmetries have seen a quantum jump with the ascent of Hindutva supremacist formations. With its ascent to power at the Centre and most states in 2014, the BJP has been “...systematically conniving to dilute existing provisions of affirmative action and legal protection to Dalits.”

The BJP government has diluted legal provisions that are meant to include more Dalits in university appointments, and it did not show alacrity in restoring the Atrocities Act to its original form when it had been watered down by a court order.... Instead, the UGC passed orders that reservations will be based on departments rather than for a university or college as a whole. Following this change in the rules, the advertisement for 52 faculty posts at the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Madhya Pradesh, to cite just one of many such instances, had only advertised one reserved post.

The dilution of affirmative action programmes manifests itself in some ingenious ways, which end up reducing the representation of members of marginalised sections in educational institutions. For instance, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, where a unique reservation system is in place, aspirants from backward districts, and students from weaker sections of society, are included in the rank and file of the institution. However, of late, there has been a qualitative change in the composition of the university. It has been reported that according to the Annual Report for 2013-14, out of the total 7,677 students at JNU, 3,648 (or around half) were Dalit-bahujan (1,058 SCs, 632 STs + 1,948 OBCs). If other deprived social groups, minorities and women are included, the elite-caste and upper class are a numeric minority at JNU, as pointed out by Abhay Kumar, in his 2016 essay, Assertion of Dalitbahujan Discourse in JNU.

But the recent suicide attempt and other changes ever since the university decided to revisit its unique reservation system, this last bastion of representative social composition is also under threat.

The author is an independent journalist. The views are personal.

“Only community sensitization can curb suicides”

“Only community sensitization can curb suicides”

Photo credit : Dr Uday K Sinha

Pritha Roy Choudhury | May 1, 2020 - 11:45 a.m.

NEW DELHI: According to data revealed by the National Crime Report Bureau, 10,159 Indian students died by suicide in 2018, up from 9,905 in 2017, and 9,478 in 2016. 

Uday K Sinha of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences says educational institutions play a bigger role than any other organisation in sensitizing the community to help curb suicides among students as they can concentrate on individual cases. Talking to Careers360, Sinha emphasized the importance of policy decisions to address the issue.

Why is it that the number of suicides among students in higher education institutions rising in our country?
There are several issues, the main one being the stress that a child undergoes to reach up to a certain level and crack competitive exams to gain entry to an educational institution. The pressure continues both at the academic front and personal front.

Do you think that the victims come from a particular background?

The victim is found to be from a marginalized and disadvantaged community mainly. We should target the actual reason for the rise in numbers. Marginalized communities have lots of issues. They do not have the facilities and social models that the advantaged communities have. Here the disadvantaged continue to remain disadvantaged, those who belong to the creamy layer progress much faster.

What has happened and has been happening is, a child from a particular community, who has been targeted, could not bear the stress and then committed suicide. Educational institutes have tried because they come under the anti-ragging rules, but unfortunately, these continue to happen within the premises of campuses.

There have to be policies that need to be looked into. Reservation is one formula, but that cannot be the only formula. Secondly, sensitivity is essential, as we are becoming very materialistic, and third, the educational institutions also need to be a little considerate within their paradigm. It is not only academic excellence, but their emotional and human aspects are equally essential. Stress management is also very important, which needs to be looked into.

What role can institutions play?
A lot of institutions have started orientation programs in the beginning of the academic session. I remember being called to IIT Roorkee many times for the orientation program, which is basically for the students. In such programs, all such delicate issues are discussed. The students are briefed about what to do and what not to do. Most of the educational institutions also have a student support centre. It may not be a counselling centre. Those from a disadvantaged community require a lot of morale-boosting. Though a lot of educational institutions have started including such programs, there are many more which do not have such programs.

Do you feel that such programs should be conducted regularly and not just at the beginning of a session?

I think the law of the country is that. The UGC and similar regulatory bodies accept that institutions must have such support systems in place. You need to train counsellors for schools and for colleges. It has to be implemented in all the institutions.

Emotional and behavioural issues are very much a part of human being, and they need to be addressed. There are a lot of issues which hampers their academic environment, and they are related to their colleagues as well as teachers.

Is the implementation a problem, then?

To an extent, yes. Professionals are also missing. I would say you need to have a school counsellor and there has to be training for such counsellors. But in our country, there is no scope of training for school counsellors or college counsellors. There are not enough trained professionals at that level. Anybody with MPhil or PhD takes up the job. That should not be the case.

Do you think that there should be a subject on mental health right from school till the completion of education?

Educational institutions have a more significant role to play. The concept of the parent-teacher meeting is basically that. The parents should be sensitized about the child’s wellbeing. The teachers need to understand the family and regular interactions help both. It is indeed a correct thing and there should be a class to address mental issues right from school. All students should understand the importance and some component of emotional and mental health wellbeing should always be there. There should be a specific cell addressing the issues. And it should continue as long as they continue their education.

Also Read:
AIIMS resident doctor attempts suicide alleging harassment by faculty

Increase in student suicides from 2016: MHRD in Lok Sabha

Write to us at news@careers360.com.

'Master Chef: India'' finalist, husband dead in ''murder-suicide'': US prosecutor

01 MAY 2020 Last Updated at 8:47 PM | SOURCE: IANS

''Master Chef: India'' finalist, husband dead in ''murder-suicide'': US prosecutor

New York, May 1 (IANS) A "Master Chef: India" finalist whose restaurant had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her husband have died "in an apparent murder-suicide," according to a prosecutor in New Jersey.

Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said that police found Garima Kothari, 35, who was five-months pregnant, dead in her residence in Jersey City on Sunday morning with injuries to the upper body and her husband, Man Mohan Mall, 37, in the Hudson River.

Both were declared dead at the scene.

"While it remains at this time that these deaths are the result of a murder-suicide, the final determination is still pending the complete findings of the Regional Medical Examiner''s Office," Suarez said in a statement.

She said that the medical examiner has determined after a postmortem that Kothari''s death was a homicide while the cause of Mall''s death was still pending.

Kothari''s restaurant, Nukkad, which opened in February in Jersey City, was closed a month later because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

She re-opened it partially in April for only pick-up and delivery orders and delivered donated meals to healthcare workers at the Jersey City Medical Centre, New Jersey magazine reported.

A week before her death, she gave an indication in a Facebook post about the financial difficulties of small restaurants and complained about large restaurant chains grabbing federal loans meant for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She wrote, "Yet another tough decision "Nukkad is up and running" even on Sundays now. I would so appreciate the support of the community at this point of time! Existence in silo is not possible, hence I feel compelled to stay open & support my skeletal staff & be able to pay some fixed expenses (now that small biz fed loans have been lapped up by the Ruths & Shake shacks!!)"

Later, Shake Shack chain that operates nearly 250 restaurants and Ruth''s Chris Steakhouse with about 80 locations agreed to return the Paycheck Protection Programme loans meant for small businesses that they had taken.

When the restaurant opened, New Jersey magazine wrote that Nukkad "is an elegant-looking fast-casual Indian restaurant doing "Indian Soul Food" from chef Garima Kothari, one of the top 15 finalists from ''Master Chef: India''."

It said that Kothari had started as an investment banker in India but switched careers after her performance on the "Master Chef" show.

The magazine said that she studied pastry and baking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and after working as a pastry chef she opened a catering company, Breaking Bread Co, in Jersey City before starting Nukkad with her husband.

Mall described himself on Facebook as an IIT Kharagpur graduate with an advanced degree in financial engineering from Columbia University in New York.

--IANS

al/rt
Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: IANS

Indian man, pregnant wife found dead in New Jersey

Indian man, pregnant wife found dead in New Jersey
Posted: May 01, 2020 07:23 AM (IST)

New York, April 30

A 35-year-old Indian woman, who was five months’ pregnant, was founded murdered in her apartment and her husband was found dead in an apparent suicide in the Hudson River near here.

Garima Kothari, a chef, was found unresponsive with trauma to her upper body on April 26 by Jersey City police officers, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Following an autopsy by the Regional Medical Examiner, Kothari’s death was ruled homicide. She suffered multiple injuries in her upper body.

Kothari’s husband Man Mohan Mall (37) was found dead in the Hudson River in Jersey City. According to a report in the Daily Voice, Kothari was a talented chef and Mall was an alumnus of the India Institute of Technology (IIT). — PTI