IIT-M suicides: Panel pitches counselling, averting stress

CHENNAI: Ensuring a harmonious environment among students and professors, giving counselling to both the faculty and their wards, and monitoring to ensure that students and scholars do not suffer from stress are some of the recommendations that the five-member inquiry committee that probed suicides in IIT-Madras put forth to the institution.

The panel headed by retired DGP G Thilakavathi was constituted on April 25 after the death by suicide of a student, Sachin Kumar Jain, triggered a protest on the campus.

The committee, which also had former IAS officers D Sabitha and Kannegi Packianathan, IIT-M faculty Professor Ravindra Gattu, and research scholar from the institution Amal Manoharan on board, investigated the circumstances leading to Jain’s death suicide, whether he faced any academic or personal pressures that may have contributed to his suicide, the support system available to Jain and other students who have taken the extreme step earlier, etc., said sources.

“The team conducted a detailed investigation among the students, parents, and friends of all the 16 IIT-M students who had died by suicide in last six years. The inquiry was conducted in-person and through video conferencing,” a source told DT Next on condition of anonymity.

“The committee submitted its 700-page confidential report to Director V Kamakoti, putting forth several recommendations to avert student suicides. It recommended the institution to ensure a harmonious environment among students and professors on the campus. The institution should give counselling to professors and students for their mental well-being, and it should also monitor to ensure that students and scholars do not suffer from stress,” said another source.

When asked, D Sabitha, a former IAS officer, who was one of the members of the committee, said they have submitted the report to IIT-M Director V Kamakoti on its findings on the suicides on campus and recommended various measures that need to be taken to avert the suicides. “As it is a confidential report, I cannot disclose any of the details. The director will reveal the details and will act accordingly,” she said.

“The report of the inquiry committee constituted to probe an incident related to an IIT-Madras student has been submitted to the institute. The institute leadership will review the report after which it would be presented to the Board of Governors, IIT-Madras. Subsequently, the recommendations will be acted upon. Upon receiving approval of the Board of Governors, the recommendations will be made public,” the institute said in a release.

Earlier in April, the students had staged a protest inside the campus demanding that the report submitted by the inquiry committee should be made public. Now, students and parents are expecting the premier institution to implement all the recommendations given by the committee to ensure that there were no more suicides on the campus in the future.