Lockdown, peer pressure cause of Suicide at IITs, says Prof Kamakoti

IIT Madras Director Prof V. Kamakoti discusses the reasons behind the sudden increase in cases of suicide at IITs and various steps his institution has taken to bring down the stress among students…

As many as 33 students have died by suicide across Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) since 2018. If one looks at the number of such tragic incidents across IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 61 suicide cases were reported during this period.

President of India, Droupadi Murmu also expressed her concern on this issue and has urged heads of these institutions to look into the issue seriously and prevent such incidents. Recently an IIT Delhi student died by suicide. As per data shared by the Ministry of Education, cases of suicide in these premier institutions have risen since 2018 which recorded 11 deaths. In the following year, 2019, the number went up to 16 but declined to five and seven in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The numbers went down during this period as students were mostly confined to their homes, with no or fewer physical classes happening on campus.

However, when the campuses reopened at their full capacity in 2022, the number of suicides also went up, with as many as 16 cases reported in 2022. This year till March 2023, six cases of students' death by suicide have already been reported.  

IIT Madras is one such institution, where four such cases have been reported in a span of three months.

Prof V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras talking about incidents of student suicide said that the cases are on the rise because of lockdown and lack of social interactions among students during that period. “The students were not able to come and meet their peers, their faculty, see the campus environment and suddenly when they joined in the third year in 2022 when they have to do internships and other academic activities, sometimes they feel lagging behind their peers thus creating pressure on them,” said Prof Kamakoti speaking to media in Delhi on rising cases of suicide in IITs.

The faculty also don’t know much about the students who have joined the campus in the third year, had they known about them from their first year there would be a connection and the faculty would also be knowing about the child.

Because of this lockdown when the students joined the campus, there was less interaction among their peer groups and all this created pressure on students these are some of the reasons why we saw so many cases of suicide at the IIT Madras campus.

Prof Kamakoti said: “We are working in this direction and it took us a year to understand what kind of grievances these children had.”

The institute has taken various approaches to address the issue. Talking about the initiatives to bring down stress among students Prof Kamakoti shared:

1- Address grievances in time time-bound manner- The institute addresses all types of grievances students have within a stipulated time.
2- 15-20 students are aligned with each faculty, and students meet these faculty members on a regular basis and share their concerns. The faculty members have been asked to record students who met or who did not. The faculty members have also been advised to see if they have some kind of stress among those students.
3- listeners- there are six people who have been given special training to act as listeners. These people listen to students, if they want to vent something, to talk to them, are also available on Whatsapp, and this done with full confidentiality.
4- The institute is ensuring zero tolerance to caste-based discrimination. There is a cell, and it is very serious, said IIT Madras Director.
5- Gatekeeper thing- professional trainers train faculty to identify students with stress.
6- Third-party counselling of students. They come to every hostel and students can talk to them. Students can also go to their set up, which is outside the IIT Madras campus, in case students are not comfortable meeting them inside the campus.
7- A wellness survey of students is being done with the help of the Government of Tamil Nadu. 6000 students surveyed till now.