ROURKELA: Following the suicidal death of a young Assistant Professor and his wife, the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) administration feels it is high time to extend mental and psychological counselling to faculty members, especially the young ones.
The premier institute had last year introduced similar counselling programme for students to act as an active guiding tool to address their emotional, academic and financial needs.
Registrar of NIT-R Prof P K Das said he has discussed the issue with Director Prof Animesh Biswas and shortly the psychological counselling programme would start for faculty members to help them effectively bust stress and mental agony.
ALSO READ: NIT Rourkela professor, wife found dead on campus; 'suicide' note reveals details of joint assets
Most of the faculty members, especially those below 40 years of age, nurture very high level of aspiration and come from nuclear families with poor social networking. Due to their limited social connections, they are not effectively able to release stress and mental agony, he said and added that the same problem is seen in other reputed institutes in the country.
Assistant Professor of Life Sciences department Rasu Jayabalan and his wife Malini were found dead in their official residence on the institute premises on Friday night.
From the suicide note, it appeared that they might have taken the extreme step over depression and being childless after 10 years of marriage seems to be the prime reason.
ALSO READ: 24-year-old man attempts suicide in Odisha after India's World Cup exit
The students, faculty and staff members are left shocked after losing a promising and well-behaved teacher, leading the administration to consider expanding the counselling programme seriously.
Sources said that the couple was staying on the second floor of the six-storey apartment along with 40 families.
Malini was also working as a nutritionist at the CWS Hospital and the couple was earning well, but they were probably depressed for not having child as the suicide note also mentioned life was meaningless without a child.
Das said life offers alternatives to compensate for the losses, adding proper counselling and better social environment can prevent one from ending life.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the couple were cremated at Vedvyas here on Sunday in the presence of their close relatives and the NIT-R community.