Following Student Suicides, IIT Kharagpur Reveals SETU Mental Health Framework to Promote Campus Wellbeing

Following a series of student suicides, IIT Kharagpur has introduced a full-fledged mental health and wellness programme called SETU — Support, Empathy, Transformation and Upliftment. Unveiled on Friday by Director Prof. Suman Chakraborty, the initiative hopes to restore student well-being through a highly integrated, tech-powered yet human-focused ecosystem.

SETU, which translates to bridge in Sanskrit, attempts symbolically to bridge isolation with inclusion and distress with strength. The new policy follows four campus student fatalities in 2025 — Shaon Mallik in January, Aniket Walker in April, Mohammad Asif Qamar in May, and Ritam Mondal last week — with desperate pleas for institutional reform to curtail academic pressure and emotional fragility among students.

Referred to as a "human-tech renaissance" of higher education, SETU@IITKGP is located as a move away from stigmatized, conventional mental health services. Instead, it integrates support into the lives of students by coupling 24/7 counselling via platforms such as YourDOST, individual therapy, psychiatric services, and peer-based support systems.

Among the most significant innovations of the framework is its AI-based emotional health monitoring system. Incorporated within classroom and living environments, it provides anonymous check-ins, early warning notices, and culturally responsive outreach, enabling real-time intervention prior to crisis buildup.

The program also facilitates decentralised, student-centred wellbeing through enabling hostel-level welfare units and peer support groups. Through active engagement of students in structuring their own support networks, the institution aims to shift wellbeing from being a clinical intervention into a campus cultural change.

By doing this, IIT Kharagpur is not just treating a crisis situation but also leading by example for all other premier institutions to recognize mental health as a vital part of success in studies and institutional integrity. SETU, both in name and essence, wants to be the connecting link between silence and support.