look news india
The kind of sad and shocking news that has come out from higher educational institutions and engineering colleges across the country in the last few years has shaken the soul of every sensitive citizen and parent. The incidents of young students taking extreme steps like suicide due to mental stress, especially in the country’s prestigious IITs and Technical Institutes (IITs and Engineering Colleges), had sparked a serious debate across the country. Especially after a tragic incident that took place at Mumbai’s prestigious institute IIT Bombay, concerns regarding the safety and mental health of students on campuses across the country had increased manifold. Amidst all these tragedies, now a very positive, commendable and hopeful news is coming out from Jharkhand’s world famous institute BIT Mesra. Setting an example for other institutes in the country, the management of the institute has started installing a special and revolutionary anti-suicide fan rod technology in its hostel rooms, so that the lives of the students can be protected and the happiness of any parent cannot be snatched away suddenly. Through this article, we will know in detail what this special technology is, how it works and how it is proving to be a lifesaver for the students in the technical institutes of the country.
That dreadful incident at IIT Bombay changed the thinking of the technical institutes of the country.
Whenever incidents of suicide are mentioned in the top educational institutions of the country, that dark day of IIT Bombay brings tears to everyone’s eyes, when a promising student committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room due to mental stress. After that incident, not only was a mountain of sorrow fallen on the family of the deceased student, but there was an earthquake in the educational world of the entire country. Sociologists, psychologists, educationists and the parents of the students themselves had raised serious questions as to why these youth, who are considered the future of the country, become victims of so much mental pressure. That incident led to a review of institutions across the country finding that simple ceiling fans in hostel rooms often become the easiest medium for such extreme measures. In view of this, many committees had recommended that such protective changes should be made in all the campuses of the country which can prevent students from taking such dangerous steps on impulse.
BIT Mesra’s historic step: Anti-suicide spring technology installed in hostel rooms
Taking all these security concerns seriously, the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology (BIT Mesra), located in Ranchi, Jharkhand, has taken a very unique and effective initiative. The institute administration has started installing a special type of anti-suicide spring and sensor based mechanism in the ceiling fans of all the hostel rooms on its campus. Under this technical solution, a high capacity spring and locking system is added to the fan rod, which allows the fan to run at full speed without any interruption under normal conditions. But as soon as any extraordinary, additional or fixed weight (like the weight of a human body) is applied on the fan, that spring immediately gets pulled downwards and the fan stops working or the safety mechanism gets activated, thereby preventing the untoward incident before it happens. This humanitarian and technical step of the institute is being praised all around and other universities are also considering adopting it.
Mental health of students, depression and increasing responsibility of educational institutions
Academics have well understood that just by making technical changes in the fans, the mental conflict and tension going on within the students cannot be completely resolved. Along with this technological shield, the organization of counseling centres, mental health workshops and stress relief sessions for students is also being increased rapidly in BIT Mesra and other big institutes of the country. The rigorous curriculum of engineering studies, the pressure of scoring good marks in exams, the worry of placement and sometimes the loneliness caused by being away from family pushes the youth into the darkness of depression. In such a time, if the institutions show sensitivity and counsel them in time and install such safety equipment, then many precious lives can be saved. Parents send their children to these campuses with big dreams, in such a situation it becomes the moral responsibility of the institutions to provide a safe environment to their children.
An exemplary example for other universities and colleges across the country
After this step taken by BIT Mesra, now the pressure and moral responsibility has increased on other prestigious universities, IITs, NITs and medical colleges of the country to adopt this type of technology. People on social media and educational forums are continuously demanding that anti-suicide fan rods or such safety devices should be compulsorily installed in every hostel room in the country, so that no parent has to see the dead body of their young son or daughter. If technical and administrative will come together, any problem can be solved. This initiative of BIT Mesra is not only a technical invention of an engineering institute, but it is also a living proof of its sensitivity and commitment towards the society, which is going to prove to be a milestone in the education sector of the country in the coming times.