IIT Kharagpur director says full-time psychiatrist will be appointed very soon

KOLKATA: A day after the Supreme Court raised concerns over instances of student suicides, IIT Kharagpur Director Suman Chakraborty on Tuesday said the premier institute will appoint a full-time psychiatrist very soon to attend to any crisis faced by students.

On Monday, the Supreme Court raised questions over the instances of suicides , particularly at IIT Kharagpur, besides Sharda University in Greater Noida , directing the investigation in both cases to "proceed expeditiously".

On the incident over the suicide of a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, the Supreme Court bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had asked the IIT Kharagpur counsel, "What is wrong with your IIT Kharagpur ? Why students are committing suicide ? Have you given a thought to this problem? What steps have you taken?"

Asked about follow-up steps in response to the SC judgement, Chakraborty told PTI, "We will be appointing a new full-time psychiatrist within the next few days. "Besides, we will be introducing motivational lecture series for all the students ", which will also help those under any stress and tension to overcome anxieties, he said.

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IIT Kharagpur will speak to parents to students every alternate month

The institute had a counselling service for 24x7 for students in any distress, but these were handled by part-time counsellors from the existing stakeholders, including members of the faculty, another institute spokesperson said.

The director had earlier said that IIT Kharagpur will speak to parents of students every alternate month to urge them not to subject their wards to extra pressure with regard to internship at individual level and to know about their assessment of the child's mental well-being.

At the induction programme last Friday, the director urged the parents not to put their children under any pressure, as the institute itself undertakes lots of academic activities and organises internships of its own.

A fact-finding committee had also been tasked with probing and preventing the back-to-back deaths of students on the campus. Four BTech students of IIT Kharagpur were found hanging in their hostel rooms since January 12 this year.