After students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi organised a silent protest and demanded a deliberation with the Director Prof Rangan Banerjee and other administrative officials over the increasing number of deaths by suicide at IIT Delhi on February 19, all of the demands set by the students have been agreed upon as of yet, informed the students.
What did the officials agree to?
An open house discussion with the students and the faculties has been scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 22, informed a post by the Students' Federation of India (SFI), Delhi (@sfidelhi) today, Tuesday, February 20.
The post informs that while the demands stated by students were previously met with resistance as the director and other administrative officials present there did not agree to them, today, the students met with the officials, and after several meetings with the director "he was forced to agree to all the demands of the students". The post also states that minor examinations scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (February 21, 22 and 23) were also postponed.
A student confirms...
EdexLive confirmed the news via a student and could gather that minor examinations that were supposed to take place from February 21 to February 24, were rescheduled to the week after and is now to take place from February 26 to February 29, and were not cancelled.
He further informed that the BTech and the MTech project mid-semester evaluations have been shifted from March 1 and 2 to March 15 and 16 respectively, and the classes that students might miss from February 26 to February 29 due to rescheduled Minor examinations, will now be recompensated by using four Saturdays in the months of March and April.
The student further added, "The meeting took place in the Senate Room of IIT Delhi in the morning. The Open House has been preponed from February 28 to February 22 gauging the immediacy of the issue, further, the Director relented to the demands that were stated, as of yet, but nothing can be said until it is official."
Demands by students
After an MTech student, Varad Sanjay Nerkar from the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, allegedly died by suicide on the college premises on Thursday, February 15, the students had come together and gheraoed the director for the fulfilment of a few demands that were
1) An observance of a day off to give time to every student and official as to why such incidents continue to happen. It is to be noted that this is the fifth incident in IITs in 1.5 months
2) Setting up an Enquiry Committee to investigate the cause behind Varad's alleged suicide, which also includes investigating the accusations levelled against Varad's guide, and promptly responding to the findings with the initiation of proper action.
3) An Open House to be conducted for all the postgraduate (PG) students without any delay and properly addressing the problem of continuous harassment by the guides assigned and the other faculty members.
4) Disclosing the findings of the previous enquiries as had been promised to the students by the institute regarding the death of Ayush Ashna, Anil Kumar, and Panav Jain, and the measures that have been taken to address the suicides taking place at IIT Delhi.
