To Kill a Morbid Thought

Ankush Kumar named changed couldn8217;t take it any longer. Often enough, the 20-year-old thought of committing suicide.

Ankush Kumar named changed couldn8217;t take it any longer. Often enough, the 20-year-old thought of committing suicide. The feeling was in stark contrast to the ecstasy he felt when he made it to IIT Mumbai. Now he could barely keep up: a huge backlog of assignments, a miserable score in the previous semester and the pile of academic work awaiting him. Fortunately, his brooding was noticed by batchmates, who contacted the institute8217;s Mentor Program. One month of counselling and Kumar got over the depression.

It was one of the three possible suicides that the institute has averted since December last year due to timely detection by students and follow-up by authorities. It was a lesson learnt the hard way. Three suicides in five years since 2000 had shocked the institute. This, despite a 10-year-old mentor program, whereby the seniors took care of the freshers. IIT Mumbai realised it had to broaden its program.

8220;Today, the members of the Mentor Program are in constant touch with juniors. We find they can handle them better,8221; says Prakash Gopalan, dean of student8217;s welfare, IIT Mumbai, who admits that identifying depression and emotional disturbances has become a major challenge for IITs across the country.

While still experimenting with solutions, IIT Chennai8217;s 25-year-old Guidance and Counselling Unit GCU, which comprises faculty and senior student counsellors, has undergone a recent revamp. Counsellors have started visiting the hostels regularly and creating awareness about their role and willingness to help. Says G. Srinivasan, head of GCU: 8220;Through our local area network, students can express their woes or post enquiries on an internal link, and their identities are protected.8221;

IIT Delhi and IIT Guwahati also have fora, where the students can talk to counsellors. At IIT Kharagpur, apart from a counselling centre that was started six years ago, their Technology Students8217; Gymkhana holds stress management workshops and yoga classes for students. 8220;There are many reasons why students at IIT get stressed, which vary from biological imbalances and adjustment problems to academic pressures,8221; explains Amita Tagare, in-house counsellor at IIT Mumbai. 8220;Unlike in schools and colleges, here students face cut-throat competition from peers, all of whom are of the same intellectual level. Besides, many cannot live up to the expectation of high scores. Some also tend to take the first year a bit easy and carry forward assignments to the next semester. If these pile on, they lose out on campus placements, making things worse,8221; she adds.

Besides keeping tabs on their academic performance and psychological levels, IITs have also been scanning the students8217; leisure activities. As students get addicted to Internet games that restricts their socialising, some institutes like IIT Mumbai have cut off LAN connectivity and Internet facilities at night.

A close link is also maintained with parents. While at IIT Mumbai parents are asked to stay with students who have suicidal tendencies, at IIT Guwahati, according to Dr S. Dandapath, dean of student8217;s affairs, parents are kept informed about their wards8217; performance.

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As for the future, IIT Chennai plans to hold interactive sessions between the alumni and students, while IIT Mumbai is set to start a 24X7 helpline for students.