IIT blames Internet for suicides

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has blamed enormous Internet surfing and constant use of mobile phones by the students for increasing number of suicides on the campus, officials said.

In a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed June 2 by the institute's alumni association, the premier institute said that as students are in regular touch with their family members, friends and relatives, several thoughts occupy them.

This in turn, at times, disturbs the students, who do not get peaceful time to study. And later, they take the extreme step for not performing well in the exams.

Earlier, when the mobile phones were not so popular, the students were not able to stay in touch with their families and hence got time to study, officials said.

Also, Internet surfing exposes the students to several sites having information that can cause a negative impact on the minds, leading students to suicides, officials added.

In another reply about the number of suicides, IIT-K said that till date six students of the institute have committed suicide.

Omendra Bharat, an IIT alumni, filed the RTI application to seek information on 14 issues, including the academic norms fixed for preparing the semester result of the students.

The RTI application was filed following the suicide by a student, Ritika Toya Chatterjee.

She killed herself May 30 after she failed in two of her final semester exams, despite having offers to join any of the six Indian Institutes of Management.

"Information regarding the semester grading of students and Ritika's grading is still to be provided along with the reply of twelve other questions we filed through RTI," said Bharat.