Three months after the death of student Darshan Solanki, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Senate is taking several steps to ensure that the academic stress that first-year students go through is reduced. This was informed by an official on Friday, May 12, as stated in a report by IANS. 

It was on February 12 that Darshan Solanki, hailing from Ahmedabad, jumped off the hostel building which was on the campus of IIT Bombay. Allegations of caste discrimination were levelled by his family which was refuted by the institute. The incident sparked a huge outrage regarding how even at premier institutes of the country, caste discrimination still prevails. 

Coming back to the initiatives that IIT Bombay has taken, one of the most important steps taken by the Senate was the removal of the option to change the branch at the end of the first year for 2023 and later entrants as well. 

"This decision was taken based on the observation that the pressure to get higher grades to earn a branch change was causing stress on many students, while only a few benefitted from the change of branch," said an official, as stated in the IANS report. 

At the time of admission, the number of seats may be correspondingly increased by a small margin for popular branched, IIT Bombay stated. 

Another important initiative to bring down the load and stress on students is by reducing one course per semester in the first year. Thus, those junior students who find it difficult to cope with the academic load will get more time to work on their courses, said the official.