VIJAYAWADA: After failing in four subjects in her first-year examinations, a 19-year-old student at IIIT-Nuzvid, Maradapu Harika, tried to end her life late on Saturday night by jumping off the third floor of the hostel building. She was admitted to Andhra Hospitals in Vijayawada and as of March 28, her condition is reportedly critical. She sustained severe injuries to her arms, limbs and spinal cord, and has to undergo several surgeries.
Harika’s roommates expressed shock over the incident and told TNIE, “She seemed fine hours before she tried to commit suicide. She was upset after the results for the first year examinations were announced on Saturday. But she attended the remaining classes and labs like any other day.”
This was the second such incident reported in March alone. Three weeks ago on March 6, 16-year-old Mandala Ramu Naidu committed suicide by hanging from the ceiling in the same college campus due to depression over family issues.
It has been learnt that Ramu displayed signs of depression several times and was quite irregular to classes. Unfortunately, none of the staff concerned noticed the behavioural change or took the efforts to understand what Ramu was feeling.
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technology campus in Nuzvid (IIIT-Nuzvid) is a State-funded institution founded in 2008 with an objective to provide high-quality educational opportunities for the ‘gifted rural youth’ of the State. The University is an autonomous institution, specialised in the teaching and research sector for information technology and engineering. It is recognised by AICTE and follows the norms and regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Spread across 130 acres, the IIIT-Nuzvid campus houses over 9,300 students all below 21 years of age. More than 80 per cent of the students come from rural backgrounds. They arrive on the campus with personal and psychological problems centred around academics, family issues, social relations and career concerns. For many students, the transition from home to hostel is often marred with debilitating stress and anxiety.
The campus in Nuzvid is the largest compared to the other four RGUKT campuses in the State. However, it lacks a basic support system to prevent student suicides as there are no dedicated counsellors to deal with the behavioural changes that are normally observed in teenagers. As many as nine students died due to suicide on the college campus from 2017 till date due to various reasons.
The International Career and College Counselling (IC3) Institute proposes a 250:1 student to counsellor ratio. The IC3 Institute is a volunteer-based organisation that provides support to high schools around the world through guidance and training resources for teachers and counsellors to help establish and maintain career and college counselling departments. The UGC has also issued circulars, several times in the past, directing higher education institutions and universities to set up student counselling centres that can address their problems and challenges.
Toll-free number for students
The Education Ministry in July 2020 launched ‘Manodarpan’ to provide counselling to students, teachers and families for mental health and emotional well-being. Students with psychological issues can call on 844 844 0632
Varsity campuses need dedicated counsellors, says psychiatrist
Explaining the need for dedicated counsellors on every campus based on the strength of the students, a Vijayawada-based psychiatrist Vishal Indla said, “It is quite common to see teenagers getting emotionally disturbed when they fail to perform well in academics. Family problems, relationship failures could be some other issues that often bother them. Apart from offering assessments, the counsellor also becomes a remedial teacher, a special educator, an invigilator and an advocate.”
Emphasising that there is a huge need for counsellors to address the psychological and behavioural changes among teenagers, a IIIT-Nuzvid professor on condition of anonymity said, “Most of the students who resort to taking the extreme step can be saved if we identify them at the earliest and counsel them.”
RGUKT-AP chancellor and chairman for the governing council, Prof KC Reddy termed Harika’s attempted suicide as unfortunate and asserted that the institution strongly believes in teaching and learning without pressurising students.
He further admitted that a lack of counsellors forced some students to end their lives as they were unable to overcome depression caused due to various reasons. Referring to Harika, the Prof Reddy said, “She is a bright student and scored grade point average of 8.4 points out of 10 in her previous examinations. With classes being online for the entire academic year, many students could not perform well. I would like to personally request them not to take extreme steps if they do not perform well academically.”
The chancellor further informed he has proposed before the advisory council to conduct special exams for all students. “They can then choose the best of two. Due to the online classes, the total pass percentage of students in this academic year has dropped, and hence the decision,” he said.
Elaborating on the measures being taken to fill vacant faculty posts on the campus, the chancellor said, “I have sent more than half a dozen requests to the government seeking immediate action to issue notifications filling the posts.”
Disclosing that the University has no powers to recruit staff directly, Prof Reddy further said as the jobs are contract-basis, not many have been interested to apply for them. He also added that several eligible job-seekers are not willing to work in Nuzvid as it is far from Vijayawada. Low salaries are another reason we haven’t been able to fill the vacancies, the professor said.
Prof KC Reddy further opined that the role of the faculty at RGUKT is not limited to cater to the academic needs of students. “In a campus with more than 9,300 students, every faculty member needs to become a mentor, motivator and psychologist. In order to increase interaction between the students and faculty, we have urged all the faculty members to take care of at least 50 students each and monitor their behaviour on a daily basis. The concerned mentor creates a WhatsApp group for the students where they would instruct and monitor their activities. If anyone is found depressed or is facing problems, his/her mentor will talk to them personally and recommend them to the psychology professor in campus for additional counselling. We have one professor for teaching psychology and he is currently also rendering services as a counsellor for the time being,” he said.
‘Depression a major cause of student suicides’
RGUKT-AP chancellor and chairman for the governing council, Prof KC Reddy termed Harika’s attempted suicide unfortunate. He further admitted that lack of counsellors forced some students to end their lives as they were unable to overcome depression caused due to various reasons
