Since January this year, multiple students have committed suicide on the IIT-Kharagpur campus. |Picture source: Special arrangement
The IIT Haragpur campus has decided to take steps to strengthen and form a committee to enhance the well-being of students, as there have been several students on campus since January, with several students last year.
IIT Kharagpur will form a 10-member campus committee of expert psychologists, legal and police professionals, educators, counselors and alumni to focus on students’ mental health and address suicide deaths.
“The committee will evaluate the factors [primary, secondary or tertiary] It affects the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff at the Institute. The committee will also identify key challenges.
The committee will evaluate the current way the institute works and make its expert recommendations when it is in trouble. They have committed to taking this opportunity to “strengthen students’ mental health ecosystem” and others on campus.
Members will speak to all stakeholders on campus to develop reports over the next three months to help improve the campus’ ecosystem and propose preventive measures to avoid similar tragic events in the future.
On Thursday, May 8, the institute also said it had decided to submit its first information report (FIR) for every student death on campus. “IIT Kharagpur has already proposed FIR in their respective student cases,” the source said.
This was on May 6, when the Supreme Court of India asked if the FIR was registered in the Qamar case and requested a report.
A series of deaths
On May 4, Mohammad Asif Qamar (22), a third-year B.Tech student, was found dead in his hotel room at the residence of Madan Mohan Malviya. It is suspected that his death was a suicide case.
Aniket Walker (22) from Maharashtra, a last-year student in marine engineering and naval architecture, was found dead on April 20 in a hotel room where he lives in JC Bose.
The first incident this year was when a 21-year-old Shaon Malik died tragically on January 12. He was a third-year student in electrical engineering and died of suicide. His parents found his body the next day to visit him.
(People in distress or with suicidal thinking can seek consultation by calling the suicide prevention helpline: Disha -0471-2552056, 1056)
publishing – May 11, 2025 at 03:17 am
