Uttar Pradesh: Student commits suicide again in IIT Kanpur, why are the cases not stopping?
MTech student committed suicide by hanging himself in the hostel of IIT Kanpur. Recently, Dr. Pallavi, a research staff member in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, also committed suicide.
Published on: 12 Jan 2024, 3:23 pm
Kanpur. Vikas Kumar Meena (31), a student of Meerut who was doing M.Tech in IIT located in Kalyanpur police station area in Kanpur city of Uttar Pradesh, committed suicide by hanging himself from a fan late at night. Reportedly the student was from Dalit community. This is the second case of suicide on the campus in the last three months. Earlier, research student Pallavi had committed suicide. In the last 12 months, many cases of suicide of students have been reported in IIT campuses located in different cities of the country.
Here, a message shared by the IIT Director to all the students said – With deep sorrow, I inform you about the tragic and untimely demise of Vikas Kumar Meena, student of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The email further described Vikas as a bright student, who joined the institute in 2021.
Vikas, son of Nemchand Meena, originally a resident of Meerut Lakshmi Vihar Near Best Price Karkheda, was a second year MTech student in IIT. Police station in-charge Dhananjay Pandey said that Vikas’s body was found hanging from a fan in the hostel room at around ten o’clock on Wednesday night.
According to the students living in nearby rooms, they did not see any movement in the room, so they took a peek. Seeing Vikas’s body hanging, the students informed. However, before they could reach, the students took the body down and took it to the health center. From there he was taken to Hallett Hospital.
Research staff member Dr. Pallavi had also committed suicide.
Police station in-charge said that Vikas is said to be under stress for many days. Evidence has been collected by calling a forensic team. Also, the body has been sent for post-mortem. Once the report comes, further action will be taken as soon as the family’s complaint is received. Let us tell you, recently Dr. Pallavi, a research staff member in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, also committed suicide.
Death due to stress, not discrimination
In April 2023, the central government made data public that showed that from 2018 to 2023, a total of seven suicides (six SC and one ST) occurred by SC/ST students in IITs. Additionally, between 2017 and 2021, seven suicides of Scheduled Caste students were reported in other central universities.
The Education Ministry said that in such cases, internal investigations are conducted by the institutions along with investigation by police and district authorities. The reasons behind these tragic incidents include academic stress, family issues, personal reasons and mental health concerns.
Suicide incidents have happened so far in Kanpur IIT
19 April 2018: Firozabad resident PhD student Bhim Singh committed suicide by hanging himself.
30 December 2019: Alok Srivastava, security guard at the institute, committed suicide by hanging himself.
09 July 2020: Professor Pramod Subramanian of the Computer Science and Engineering Department of IIT committed suicide by hanging himself.
12 May 2021: Surjit Das, assistant registrar at the institute, committed suicide by hanging himself.
07 September 2022: Varanasi resident PhD student Prashant Singh committed suicide by hanging himself.
12 December 2023: Dr. Pallavi, a research staff member in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, committed suicide by hanging herself.
Last year, several students at the country’s IIT campuses committed suicide. Most of them came from Dalit-tribal society and were subjected to caste oppression.
February 12: Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old chemical engineering student, allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the 7th floor of his hostel building.
February 13: The second suicide of the year was reported after Stephen Sunny, a 27-year-old research scholar from Maharashtra, committed suicide at IIT Madras.
March 14: The body of Pushpak, a third-year B.Tech student at IIT Madras, was found hanging in his room at Alaknanda hostel.
March 31: Kedar Suresh, 20, from Madhya Pradesh, committed suicide at IIT Madras.
July 9: Ayush Aashna, a fourth-year student belonging to the Department of Mathematics and Computing, committed suicide at IIT-Delhi.
September 1: Anil Kumar, a student from Scheduled Caste, committed suicide in IIT Delhi.
