To reduce student suicides by hanging to fans, institute in India removes fans (opens in new tab)

Thi will never cure the underlying cause of suicides, of course, but adding even slight obstacles has proven to have an effect on suicide rates. Many suicides aren't thoughtfully planned out, but are just a combination of motive and easy opportunity. Even adding something as seemingly silly as a moderately difficult to climb fence to a bridge can reduce suicide rates.

This is a fine measure, assuming that it's followed by investment into mental health. I do believe it'll save lives, even if it's just a few, but the necessity proves that there's still a lot that needs to be done.

Blame the fans, so what is the next thing they will remove, floors above 2nd, sharp objects, electricity? Everything else but not the cause ...

I wish the article had dwelled into IISc a bit more. It is one of the most sought after research institutions in India. Those who enter it are primarily motivated by an opportunity to advance their field. Though I haven't studied there I have interacted with those who have and have been to the campus on quite a few occasions.

IISc is very different from IITs other much talked about institution. While latter is full of students from poor/middle-class trying to break out of their economic situation IISc is purely about research. Few understand the pressures a researcher at IISc goes through. Research is hard, more so in India and it takes its toll on some of the finest minds.

The title is ungrammatical. It should probably be corrected to:

"To reduce student suicides by hanging from fans, institute in India removes fans"

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Some context that is missing in the article: this university has about 4000 students. [1]

So those 4 suicides this year represent 0.1% of the student population. For comparison, the suicide rate for the Indian population in general is closer to 0.01%. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institute_of_Science

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_India

I think this is a genuinely good idea. (which should obviously be accompanied by actual rehabilitative options and de-stigmatization of mental health) I went to similar institute in India (NIT, the proverbial first losers), and 3 students hung themselves over the span on 2 years. (1 acquaintance, 1 friend) From what was made public, their decision to commit suicide was a rash one, tied to the fear of failure. (one was a break up)

I have been depressed before, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But, the decision to go from crushing depression to suicide is often fast (span on a few days) and genuinely reversible, as long as the person lives. We know that far more men die due to suicide, due to their choice of a more fatal weapon (gun to the dead > slashing veins).

Making it harder to commit suicide gives institutions and social systems time to help the person out.

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Indians aged 18-19 at top engineering institutes are probably the most underdeveloped humans you will ever meet.

These kids sacrifice their entire personal/social/philosophical development for 2-6 years, to study 12+ hrs/day for the IIT-JEE entrance exam. They have no life, no hobbies, no personal aspirations outside getting into IIT.

Once they're in, they are often alone & underprepared for the general rigors of campus life. They feel too emotionally about their first relationship or they take their first failure too hard (I have had to talk my India CBSE top 10 rank friend out of harming himself, because he got a 'B' for the first time in his life. I kid you not).

Every part of this process is exploitative and unfair to the children. But, in a country where getting into IIT/IISc opens doors to the world's elite, you can hardly fault them/ their families for simply optimizing for the best value proposition.

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IMO, top Engineering institutes in India need to allow students some time to breathe after they come in. Let them live out their high-school days in some capacity during their freshman year of college. Let them find an identity that isn't tied to their grades and studies.

Lastly, but most importantly, teach them about mental health and struggles that they are bound to face. Help them truly grok that failure is an inevitable part of everyone's life. Unfortunately, I find that this is still under discussed even in elite universities in the US. What hope do these Indian institutes have?

They missed the obvious option, to firbid high schools (this will remove students)

Obviously an emotive topic and I hope to tread lightly. Overwhelmingly people who have bear miss suicide attempts later are glad they did not do it. Suicide is rarely a release from trouble, causing massive problems for those who are left, often burdening them with a lifetime of struggle.

Naturally we ache at the thought of removing useful ceilung fans rather than addressing the root cause. Yet who would criticise a seat belt, saying we just need to drive safely?

Suicide is hard to reliably predict despite substantial efforts to do so. One if the models I've found useful is that of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3377972/#!po=40...

Is this not the same argument with gun control? Remove the guns, solves gun violence?

On a similar note, I don’t think that teaching mental health is the solution. The pressures in India are terrible. MIT in the US has no legacy program, and has the highest suicide rates, and I know a few people that were committed rapidly and diagnosed haphazardly. This prevents suicide by imprisoning them in powerful psychoactive drugs (antipsychotics) and labeling them as schizophrenic, holding them against their free will to lower suicide stats.

The underlying issue is the pressure to succeed, and they will never remove that in India.

Why take down the fans? It’s survival of the fittest! /sarc Humanity is fine with creating unneeded suffering in others but we will alway draw the line at ending human suffering.

It is the same with the homeless. Society is fine with us living on the street but will give you immediate housing if you want to end your suffering by suicide.

So, we could restructure education and society in a way that would eliminate suffering.

Does anyone want to talk about that?

Melbourne, Victoria had a similar thing with its bridge. $20 million solution:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/government-to-be...

Views crossing the bridge are a nice touch now as you enter the worlds most locked down city.

Isn’t this just a question of ease of substitution? If it’s a trivial to substitute hang yourself from x vs y or substitute Hanging for handful of pills - is the marginal benefit really there? I suspect not, but I do think from an administrators standpoint this has the effect of a) looking like they are doing something, b) pushing [embarrasing] suicides off campus/out of sight.

I think making suicide less accessible will result in fewer suicides on campus. And I think making it more accessible will increase its rate.

Seems obvious.

But the headline isn't about that. It's about tut-tutting this backward institution. Because we, and the students union knows everything the school is doing to curb suicides beyond removing fans.

Can they do more? Maybe. How would I know. I've never heard of this school before.

The real tragedy here is the people who continue to live in horrible suffering, wanting to die but not being able to.

Fantastic solution. Another way would be to remove students' heads, which would be equally effective.

I think the students are right that it's a bad idea. They don't want to lose their fellow students to suicide, but are still against replacing the fans. They are young and inexperienced so maybe a simple majority would be easy to dismiss but this is 90%.

What is causing high suicide rates in students? Is it the immense pressure to get perfect test results so they can be seen as successful by their overbearing parents who will label them as failures if they do not rank at the top of their class?

Lol, who comes up with this stuff.

Measures like this show clearly that their concern is legal liability, not student welfare. Will it meaningfully reduce the number of suicides on campus? It might. But that isn't, and shouldn't be, the point.

Hope they fit A/C because India can get bloody hot - you need a fan.

Even if poor access to mental health resources is the root course, it is the right choice to make sure students survive longer to have a chance to get help.

Not enough, not even a start, but the right choice.

Wouldn't it make more sense to alter the ceiling fans so that excess weight (e.g. a body) will cause them to detach from the ceiling, preferably also triggering an alarm?

Living in 100F+ heat might with no fans might make you suicidal.

Providing psychological counselling to students would be better approach.

IISC, definitely have money. Even a part time mentah health professional will do.

How much weight can a ceiling fan hold?

So the Indian Institute of Sciences hasn't got the memorandum on psychological counselling yet?

Great. That should do it. /s