How would a premium institution respond to the suicides of its students on campus? Encouraging mental wellness, improving dialogues between faculties… If that is what you were thinking, please put your thoughts on hold.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has taken a rather weird step to curb the number of student suicides at its campus. It has ordered the removal of ceiling fans from every student’s room and has installed a wall-mounted fan instead.
The students are also restricted from entering terraces and narrow balconies, informed a student.
Four students had committed suicide in the IISc campus this year, two in 2020. In an internal letter, the management has indicated that all rooms will have it ‘covered’ in the next 15 days. The work of ceiling fan removal began from the U block this week, said a student.
Apparently, a poll was also conducted internally in which as many as 88 per cent of students said they did not think replacing ceiling fans with wall-mounted ones in all IISc hostels would help in avoiding suicides. Also, 90 per cent of them did not want this replacement of fans altogether. A meagre 6 per cent of students said they did not care about any of these changes.
On the contrary, the institution has a wellness Center which is supposed to help students cope up with pressure and help mental health. “It has been useless mostly,” told a couple of students to News18.com on condition of anonymity. But better plans to improve the center is on cards, said another source.
But, a premium institute like IISc opting for a solution like this to bring down suicide numbers is talked about on social media.
DISCLAIMER: This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata)
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