Doubts over anti-suicide panels at institutes after student death at IIIT Ranchi

The Centre on Tuesday set up a panel to inquire into the alleged suicide of a Dalit student at IIIT Ranchi, which many felt was an addition to the list of routine committees that are constituted and forgotten after the issues die down.

The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), established by the education ministry in collaboration with the state government and three companies in the public-private-partnership mode, witnessed student protests against alleged negligence by the institute after first-year student Aditya Kumar was found hanging in his hostel room on Saturday evening. The ministry set up a three-member committee to probe the circumstances around the death.

Students alleged that the ambulance arrived 15-20 minutes late and lacked essential equipment. They demanded a better mental health support system for students.

The panel, headed by Prof. Rajni Abbi, director of Delhi University’s South Campus, has a senior psychiatrist and a ministry official.

“The committee has been mandated to examine the circumstances surrounding the incident and assess the implementation of the guidelines, with particular reference to the availability and functioning of basic facilities, institutional support systems, counselling and mentoring arrangements, and student grievance redressal mechanisms,” the ministry said in a press release.

The panel will identify systemic gaps and recommend measures to strengthen student well-being and help prevent such incidents, it added. “The ministry is undertaking suitable interim administrative arrangements to ensure the smooth and effective functioning of the institute, keeping in view the interests and well-being of the students,” it added.

Dheeraj Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and founder of the Global IIT Alumni Support Group, described the committee as an ad hoc routine government mechanism used immediately after an incident.

“The ministry has now set up one more ad hoc committee to examine the student death, and I welcome that. But in January it set up a similar committee after the IIT Kanpur suicides, with a 15-day deadline. Eight months on, no findings are in the public domain. A committee that doesn’t report back isn’t accountability. Publish the Kanpur findings, tell us which recommendations were implemented, and then we can judge whether the Ranchi committee will make a difference,” Singh said.

On January 22, the ministry set up a committee headed by Prof. Anil D. Sahashrabudhe, chairperson of the National Educational Technology Forum, to inquire into recurrent student suicides at IIT Kanpur.

A ministry order said that in July 2023 it had issued guidelines on ensuring emotional and mental well-being of students. The guidelines emphasise sensitisation and capacity-building programmes for faculty members, orientation, counselling and handholding mechanisms for students and early detection of stress, distress and vulnerability for immediate intervention and a buddy-mentor system. There was, however, no data on implementation of the guidelines.