The administration of IIT Bombay has implemented significant measures to strengthen its mental health system following the tragic death of a student and subsequent student protests. These actions were taken in response to growing campus dissatisfaction.
The institute's Student Wellness Center (SWC) announced an urgent recruitment drive for 30 temporary counselors. This move followed an incident on September 18 when second-year undergraduate student Sahil Wakode passed away under circumstances deemed to be suicide, shortly after being accused of using his phone during an midterm examination.
Protesting students presented a long list of demands to the Director of IIT Bombay, Professor Shirish Kedare. They argued that the SWC was in extremely poor condition, and the number of available counselors was too limited compared to the large student body—around 14,000—making it impossible to provide necessary psychological support.
In response to active student demonstrations and similar sad incidents over the past year, the administration accelerated the hiring process. A total of 30 vacancies will be filled: 26 student counselor positions and 4 senior counselor positions on a temporary basis. The selected candidates may start as early as October 15. Senior counselors require at least 10 years of experience, while student counselors require at least 2 years. A mandatory requirement is a Master's or Bachelor of Science degree in clinical psychology, counseling, or social psychology with a grade of no less than 55%.
The institute also emphasized that when selecting candidates, priority will be given to those who speak other Indian languages besides Hindi and English, to ensure convenience for students from diverse social and linguistic backgrounds.
In addition to hiring counselors, the IIT Bombay administration announced several other corrective administrative changes to improve student welfare. An additional Dean of Student Affairs will be appointed, whose primary task will be to directly oversee student well-being.
Furthermore, to ensure immediate assistance for students in crisis situations, Student Wellness Secretaries will be assigned in every hostel. The question remains whether merely increasing the number of counselors can solve the problem of rising psychological stress and intense academic pressure in student residences until fundamental changes are made to approaches to exam stress, grading systems, and counseling in the country's leading engineering institutions.