Psychiatrists, legal experts to be on IIT-Kgp panel to probe suicide spate
Times of India | 4 May 2025
123 Kolkata: Behavioural science experts, psychiatrists, counsellors, legal experts, alumni, former faculty members, student representatives and professors will be part of IIT Kharagpur's committee that will investigate the reasons behind the spate of students' suicides and suggest measures to address the concerns.
The committee is likely to be formed by next week.
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TOI had on April 29 reported that the mother and brother of Aniket Walkar, the IIT fourth-year ocean engineering and naval architecture student who was found hanging in his room at J C Bose Hostel on April 20, had written to the IIT acting director Amit Patra, seeking an independent probe into the circumstances leading to his death and also urged authorities to find the reasons behind the large number of suicides at IIT-Kharagpur. The Walkars also wrote to the police.
Aniket was the second student to die on the campus this semester, third in 10 months, and the eighth in five years.
"We will constitute the committee along the lines of IIT Delhi. We will strengthen and customise the committee, based on our campus's needs and issues. There will be psychiatrists, counsellors, legal experts, behavioural science experts, former faculty, student representatives and professors on the panel that will holistically look at the campus environment and the concerns, including academic pressure. They will suggest measures to improve the system. The panel may take around three months to submit the report," said Patra. "We hope to constitute the committee by next week."
Teachers and students from IIT Kharagpur have repeatedly flagged concerns about students' mental health issues, study pressure, stress and caste tensions.
IIT-Kharagpur's decision to form an independent experts' panel gains significance following the Supreme Court's March 24 directive to set up a National Task Force to examine the rising number of suicides at education institutes.
Aniket's brother Sudeep, who studies at IIT Guwahati, said on Saturday, "We want timely justice and emotional closure. The authorities should be accountable to the victim's family, and there should be reforms to address the rising deaths on the campus." Founder of Global IIT Alumni Support Group Dheeraj Singh said, "We welcome the director's announcement to commission an inquiry by independent experts to establish accountability and suggest measures to arrest the surge in suicides at IIT Kharagpur. We hope the panel will conduct a fair probe."