VIJAYAWADA: Student suicides in intermediate colleges don’t seem to be coming down despite the state government working on the recommendations of the Chakrapani Committee which was set up to formulate guidelines to check the occurrence of students resorting to the extreme step. Interestingly, the recommendations lack clarity on corporal punishment.Friends and relatives of P Eashwar Reddy, who committed suicide at Narayana Junior College’s Gudavalli branch on Sunday, allege that he was harassed by his lecturers both physically and mentally.
In the wake of the incident, the stark absence of any direction on how to deal with physical punishments has come to light. Speaking to TNIE, D Chakrapani, who played a vital role in formulating the guidelines said, “We conducted meetings in all districts with parents, lecturers, college authorities and government officials before submitting the recommendations. We want students to have stress-free education and at least one person to share their problems with. For that, we suggested putting in place libraries, yoga centres, playgrounds etc. Corporal punishment hasn’t come to our notice, so we didn’t include it in the guidelines.”
The Committee, in its report, directed that two monitoring groups, one at the college level and the other at the district level, be set up to keep track of whether educational institutions were implementing the guidelines. “We formed an ethical committee in the district and conducted a meeting with college managements once. After that, we haven’t held a meet. We’ll soon hold one to discuss the implementation of the guidelines,” said Gandham Chandrudu, Joint Collector of Krishna district.Student organisations allege colleges are not following any of the guidelines.
“The Chakrapani Committee clearly mentioned that colleges should have playgrounds, counsellors, libraries etc. But few colleges can boast of these amenities. Moreover, students are being harassed with weekly tests, marks and ranks. Eashwar Reddy committed suicide because of these tensions and harassment,” Noor Mohammad, SFI state president, said.“Officials should check if the guidelines are being followed. Just framing them won’t help anybody,” said T Yashoda, the parent of a student of Narayana College, Vijayawada.
Tragedy strikes again
An Inter second year student of Sri Chaitanya Junior College in Vijayawada attempted suicide on Tuesday after he was allegedly thrashed by his lecturers. His fellow students shifted him to a hospital after he reportedly jumped off the college building.