Another suicide at IIT KANPUR!

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What the FUCK is going on at IIT Kanpur? Seriously, what the FUCK. Every year that campus just has to have at least 2-3 suicide cases. Not a single year can pass before a couple of students just give up their life because they flunked some of their courses.

The latest case is of a girl named Toya Chatterjee. As is said in this report:

Toya Chatterjee, who had failed in two of her papers in the final semester, was found dead in the girls’ hostel on the eve of the institute’s annual convocation scheduled for Saturday.

IIT-K Director Sanjay Govind Dhande said Toya was suffering from depression and was not physically fit. “On several occasions, her parents had been apprised of the matter by the Dean of Student Affairs and Project Guide,” he said. “She often remained absent from the classes, and was an average student,” he added.

Hmm, quite average she maybe. Yet somehow she cleared CAT and got calls from all the six IIM’s eh?

But more than Toya, this is about the rising rate of suicides from this particular IIT. On April 18, Prashant Kumar Kureel, a first year B Tech student, had also committed suicide. And so many others that I have heard of over the years. What is the reason? We all read about students committing suicides all over the nation. But there is something strangely ironical about an IITian committing suicide. Not that the other suicides are any less hocking.I know that the grading system of IIT-K is pretty screwed up( quite similar to BITS-Pilani), which is also quite misleading to the recruiters. But is it just that? What about the other IIT’s? IT Madras? IIT B? One google search gives me thousands of news clips and blog entries on the number of deaths that have occurred in these elite institutions.

Do people who flunk courses receive counseling?

Lets address a larger issue. Do any colleges have psychologists to act as guiding beacons and take care of students’ depression issues etc. Sometimes I feel we take certain things too lightly. Such as , take,fire exits or counseling in college as a few examples!

My school of thought would say the more competitive the college environment, the better the psychologists it should have. Because well in relative grading someone has to be below average. The key here is that in relative grading, so you’re good or bad only w.r.t to the people in your batch etc.

True agree, it is a foolish thing to give up your life when something goes wrong in your life. I am assuming her suicide was in some way related to her CAT performance, where she’d be missing a chance to attend an IIM.

But I feel we need psychotherapists and the like, especially for people who might have any chances of trotting down the path to depression so that we don’t lose more ignited minds.

P.s: I wonder what impact will reservation have on the suicide rate of the IIT. For the general category number will be the same and they will definitely perform better than the people who get through the quotas. Professors aren’t surely going to be lenient towards the quota gang. So how will they cope up?