Editorial: Tackling student suicides — IIT-Kharagpur shows the way
IIT-Kharagpur’s ‘Campus Mothers’ initiative — appointing female mentors from among the women residing on campus —shows a growing acknowledgement within elite institutions that student well-being can no longer be treated as an afterthought
Behind the veneer of glamour attached to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — the dream destination for the country’s youth — lies a bitter reality: a high rate of student suicides. The IITs have witnessed 127 suicides between 2005 and 2024. IIT Madras recorded the highest, with 26 student suicides, followed by IIT Kanpur (18), IIT Kharagpur (14), IIT Guwahati (13), and IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi reporting 10 suicide cases each. Last year, the Union Ministry of Education informed Parliament that at least 33 student suicides were reported from IITs during the period January 2018 to March 2023. These official figures, disturbing as they are, don’t reveal the full picture. Against this grim backdrop, the IIT-Kharagpur’s proposal to launch a “Campus Mothers” initiative — appointing female mentors from among the women residing on campus, both faculty and non-faculty, to provide informal emotional support to students — deserves to be applauded for its honest intent. The women volunteers will be trained to provide emotional support and mentorship to distressed students. They will receive orientation and training in counselling and related skills. Such compassionate intervention allows students to express themselves in ways that a mechanised chatbot simply can’t match — there are limits to what technology can do. Many more such initiatives are needed to address an alarming trend of mental health crises on campuses. Though questions are being raised in some quarters over gender stereotyping inherent to the ‘Campus Mothers’ programme, such nitpicking must be avoided.
The IIT-Kharagpur’s idea shows a growing acknowledgement within elite institutions that student well-being can no longer be treated as an afterthought. In this year alone, the Kharagpur campus has reported three student suicides. Any initiative that sincerely seeks to address the student crisis must be welcome. Campus suicides in India have come to acquire a macabre sense of déjà vu. Every death is a cry in the wilderness; a silent scream that should haunt us collectively as a nation. After acing one of the toughest competitive tests in the world, students step into these hallowed campuses, dreamy-eyed and full of hope, but what they eventually go through during this crucial phase is something that society never bothers to find out. Not all students will be equipped to handle the academic stress. Unfortunately, some will crack up. These tragedies are largely preventable. But, the efforts of the authorities have so far been patchy, ritualistic and ineffective. Campus suicides are a grim reminder of the failure of the existing institutional framework in addressing the mental health concerns of students on campuses. High expectations for excellence, peer pressure, inability to cope with punishing schedules, little or no personal interaction with the faculty, caste discrimination, uncertainty about campus placements, relationship and family issues are among the factors responsible for the rise in campus suicides.
