Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on Thursday conducted its second yet the biggest ‘Open House’ meeting to address student’s concerns following widespread protests on campus in the wake of the fourth student suicide this academic year amid demands of setting up a permanent internal committee to look into suicides on campus.
The students’ body also circulated a survey asking what kind of changes they wish to seek in the academic structure and any discrimination faced by them based on their caste or gender to which over 2000 students on campus have responded. The survey findings were also put forth in the meeting to be acted upon.
The Open House with the institute’s director Rangan Banarjee was held on Thursday evening and went on for a few hours where students, from both undergraduate (UG) and post-graduate (PG) departments put forth their demands asking for “systemic changes” in the way the institute functions.
On February 15, Varad Sanjay Nerkar (23), a final-year MTech student died by suicide in his hostel room on campus. This was the fourth such incident at the institute, prompting protests from students.
“This was by far the biggest such open house where almost all students across programmes participated. This was mainly because after the fourth such incident, every other student on campus was part of the protests leaving aside their regular classes or assignments. Students are deeply disturbed to be able to focus on studies,” said a student representative.
This was the second such meeting students had with the director with the previous one held on September 3 last year following two student suicides on campus, both of whom were from the same department and belonged to the reserved categories.
When reached out to the institute to share their response on the demands being made by students and any changes that may be in the working, an IIT-Delhi spokesperson refused to comment on the same.
Last year, Ayush Ashna a final year BTech student from the Maths and Computing department died by suicide on July 10. On September 1, another student Anil Kumar from the same batch too died by suicide. On October 31, Panav Jain, another final-year BTech student of IIT-Delhi died by suicide at his residence in east Delhi’s Shahdara. Jain was also a student mentor and a prominent member of several extra-curricular activities.
Following the impact of Nerkar’s death on students, the institute postponed the mid-semester exams, which were scheduled for February 21 -24 and will now be conducted between February 26 -29. The institute also cancelled regular classes and labs during this week.
Nerkar, according to the institute was a well-performing student. His family has alleged that his academic supervisor had been mentally harassing him. However, IIT-Delhi is yet to come out with its internal enquiry report looking into the reasons for his death.
“We have demanded that the details of the findings of the enquiry report of all such past incidents be made open to students. Also, we have asked the institute to set up a permanent internal enquiry panel to look into suicides on campus, which are most often perpetrated by the stressful atmosphere around students including various kinds of discrimination including at the hands of the faculty,” said, a PG student representative.
Nerkar’s is not the first case of a PG student being allegedly targeted by their academic supervisors in the IIT system. Recently, IIT-Madras too saw a similar case where research scholar Sachin Kumar Jain ended his life on March 31, 2023. A panel set up by the institute to inquire into Jain’s death found his research supervisor “responsible” for the extreme step in a report that was submitted in November last year. Based on the panel’s report, the professor was suspended from the institute.
Meanwhile, IIT-Kanpur saw three suicides between December 19, 2023, and January 18, 2024, two of whom were research scholars. An internal survey carried out by the students’ body at IIT-K in July 2023, and published this January, found that at least 80 per cent of those pursuing PhD programmes have faced mental health issues; 60 per cent have at least once thought of dropping out of the research programme while many stated being discriminated against by guides in the face of “favouritism”, “elitism” and “casteism”.
All of these are top-ranking, first-generation IITs where students said the “suicide culture” has become commonplace yet it hasn’t made much of a difference to the institutes’ functioning over the years. Also, students questioned the quality of counselling services available on campus and that seeking help is not that easy.
“In a place where students are just isolated in the face of academic pressure looking at each other as just competitors and nothing else, how can we even think of a student opening up to another? The counselling services are of not much help, as no system in place can identify students battling mental health issues and provide them relief,” said a UG student at IIT-Delhi.
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