IIT-K blames Internet, cellphones for student suicides

AN ALARMING STATISTICS: Six students have committed suicide in the last three years.

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Keywords: Mobile Phone, Internet

Lucknow: The increasing number of students committing suicide in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur — one of India’s best engineering colleges — has put the premier institute under the scanner once again.

Alarmed by the increase in suicides — six in last three years — a group of IITians filed an application under the Right to Information Act to find out what was causing the students to take the extreme step.

And the engineering institute’s reply has left the students shocked and surprised.

"What is the reason for suicide? The answer was Internet, mobile phones etc," former IIT-Kanpur student Omendra Bharat said.

The IIT stated that modernisation, social imbalance, irrational use of Internet and mobile phones as the chief reasons. It adds that parents are putting pressure on their children to achieve success at any cost.

"Parents can keep in touch with their sons and daughters on campus. Maybe there can be pressure from various parts of the society because you’re easily connected," IIT-Kanpur Dean Partha Chakraborty justified.

But IIT students have rejected the argument.

"This is totally baseless In fact when there is pressure will talk to parents," IIT-Kanpur student Pratibha said.

Citing excessive usage of mobile phone as one of the reasons for growing suicides in IIT sounds quite bizarre. Perhaps IIT-Kanpur could help the students cause by easing the academic pressure and also changing the grading system.