In solidarity with the protesting students of NIT Kurukshetra: Demand institutional accountability for the suicides within the campus

SFI stands in solidarity with the students of NIT Kurukshetra who are protesting against the apathy of the administration towards the series of suicide of students that happened within the campus. On 16th April, in the afternoon, a second year AIDS student was found hanging in her hostel room. Four students have lost their lives on the campus since February 17th and the administration remains apathetic towards the incidents by reducing the issues as "personal" and escaping the moral responsibility of initiating a probe.

The ongoing protest in the campus exposes the inefficiency and apathy of the administration where the response was unreasonably delayed. The girl was declared dead without examining and no help was offered to the students in relieving the girl from the rope. Additionally the issue also points towards the need for a functional healthcare system within the campus and a mechanism for addressing psychological or mental health.

National Institutes throughout the nation have already witnessed continuous student suicide for various reasons. However, the administrations have miserably failed to look into these issues with due moral concern and offer necessary support to the student community. The lack of students unions and democratic spaces in National Institutes further affects the students by keeping them away from their basic rights while hustling to meet the institutional and academic standards, which often becomes an undiscussed pressure. Students' lives are as important as the results expected from them and the institutions must perform their roles in supporting the students in every possible way.

We demand justice for the five students of NIT Kurukshetra who have lost their lives inside the campus. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the students of the campus. We demand:

• An immediate installation of a professional mental health support mechanism capable of seeing the structural issues in the lives of struggling students and help handle them effectively
• A rapid response team in times of adversities
• A functional healthcare facility within the campus, with utmost priority
• An unbiased and comprehensive probe must be conducted in the incidents.

Student life matters!

Released by
Adarsh M. Saji (President, SFI)
Srijan Bhattacharyya (General Secretary, SFI)