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Another IIT-H student dies by suicide
On July 17, a second year BTech student at IIT Hyderabad went missing from the campus. Three days later, his body was found washed ashore on a beach in Visakhapatnam and identified by his parents
Hyderabad
A 21-year-old post-graduation student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad died by suicide in her hostel room on campus on Monday night, police said on Tuesday.
This is the second case of death by suicide in the Hyderabad institute in three weeks and fourth in last one year.
According to Sangareddy (Rural) sub-inspector of police M Rajesh Naik, the 21-year-old – a resident of Odisha -- was a first-year master’s student in the field of civil engineering and had joined the institute in July. She was staying in a single-seater room in the college hostel. “The other students found her hanging from the ceiling fan around 10pm and one of them alerted the police... We found a suicide note in her room in which the student has written two lines in Odiya language saying that no one is responsible for her death... and that she was undergoing severe mental pressure,” SI Naik said, adding that a case of “suspicious death” has been registered and further investigation is underway.
“We have sent the body to Sangareddy government hospital for a postmortem examination and informed the student’s parents... they are on their way to Hyderabad,” he added.
On July 17, a second year BTech student at IIT Hyderabad went missing from the campus. Three days later, his body was found washed ashore on a beach in Visakhapatnam and identified by his parents on July 25. Police said the BTech student died by suicide.
On August 31 last year, an MTech student died by suicide in his hostel room on the IIT Hyderabad campus. A few days later, on September 6, a BTech student at the institute also died by suicide.
A senior faculty of IIT Hyderabad said on condition of anonymity that there exists a counselling centre in the institute who regularly counsel students to ease the academic pressure on students.
Amid a surge in suicides among students in premier educational institutes, including IITs and National Institute of Technology (NITs), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), Union education Dharmendra Pradhan, in an interview with HT had said: “It is a serious issue, and we need to address it. It is our responsibility to ensure that the campuses of India are sensitive, responsible and free from discrimination of any kind... These are social, economical challenges of our society and we, as a society, have to take the responsibility to address them.”
Academic stress, and family, personal and mental health issues, are among some of the reasons identified behind the cases of suicides among students at the country’s premier higher education institutions, the Union ministry of education informed Parliament in March.
