On the day that he took his little daughter to join kindergarten, Sharis Mohammed, a scriptwriter of Malayalam films, posted a video saying that he would never let his child go to the college that he had studied at – the Amal Jyothi College of Engineering in Kottayam. Four days ago, a 20-year-old student of the college, Sradha Satheesh, died by suicide. Hundreds of students poured on the campus grounds in protest after her death. They alleged that mental harassment by the authorities had led to her death. By Tuesday, June 6, students from all the departments and batches came out in front of the college, asking the authorities to answer their questions.
Sharis was one of the former students who spoke out about his horrible experiences at the college, turning emotional as he empathised with what Sradha must have gone through. “Both she and I answered the same question: If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be? For both of us, the answer was: to go to a different college. The only difference is I am alive today and she is not,” he said. He was talking about an online survey that Sradha had reportedly taken part in and shared on social media.
Five days ago, Sradha had returned to the college to begin classes on June 1 for her fourth semester. The next day her phone was allegedly taken away during the lab hour and she was taken to the office of the Head of the Department. Students and members of Sradha’s family alleged that it was after she came out of the HOD’s office that she began speaking about death. Some of the students allege that Sradha’s post about the online survey might have led the authorities to take her phone and reprimand her. She was found to have attempted suicide later on the same day in her hostel room. Sradha died after she was taken to a hospital nearby.
Sharis, who studied at Amal Jyothi 14 years ago, said he could attest to the emotional pressure and torture the college students faced. “I am not talking as an outsider or someone who has read the media reports. I was a student there. If Sradha was forced by the system to take her life inside the college, in her hostel room, then it is not suicide, but institutional murder. It is not one person’s voice. Many students from my batch and junior batches would say the same thing,” said Sharis, who wrote the script of the film Jana Gana Mana, which incidentally portrayed the suicide of a female student, tormented by the casteist behaviour of a professor.
He also spoke against the alleged confiscation of Sradha’s phone by college authorities, calling it an invasion of her private space. The college manager denied any role in her death and said they were waiting for the police report on the matter. “Let the police investigate. We want to find out the truth as well. After vacation, the students returned on the first (of June) and this happened on the second. What the students now say emotionally need not be correct,” the school manager Fr Mathew Paikatt told the media. Amal Jyothi College is run by the Catholic Diocese of Kanjirappally.
The students also allege that the college management was trying to paint a story that Sradha was upset because of her back papers (backlog). But her classmates and her family say how happy she had been even on June 1, a day before her death.
Sradha’s brother told Asianet News how ‘kochu’ (an affectionate term for younger ones) had left home for college in good spirits after the holidays on June 1. It was at the funeral on June 3 that the family heard from other students of the college about what went on in the campus. “It is like a concentration camp. No one knows what happens there,” the brother said.
In a video shot by News18, one of the protesting students said that the teachers went to the extent of blaming them for not staying with Sradha after she sounded suicidal. The students narrated how insensitive the authorities were by crudely asking them, “chatha mathi ennu paranja kuttye ottakku vitathu enthinanu?” (why did you leave a student alone when she said she wanted to die). In their list of questions, the students asked what happened in the HOD’s office that made Sradha want to take her life; who were the teachers trying to save by blaming the students and why were the police not taking statements of the students who were with Sradha on Friday and more.
"വിദ്യാലയങ്ങളിൽ രാഷ്ട്രീയം വേണ്ട" എന്ന അരാഷ്ട്രീയത വിളമ്പുന്ന ബുദ്ധിജീവികൾക്ക് ഇത്തരം സംഭവങ്ങളിൽ എന്താണ് പറയാനുള്ളത്?
— Aswin Trivandrum (@AswinTvm3) June 6, 2023
ശ്രദ്ധയ്ക്ക് നീതി ലഭിക്കാൻ മുന്നിൽ നിന്ന് പോരാടുന്ന വിദ്യാർഥികൾക്ക് ഐക്യദാർഢ്യം! pic.twitter.com/3o6tbY88Sl
They especially want to get answers from the hostel warden Sister Maya, who they accused of multiple mistakes. The warden had allegedly harassed Sradha after she was taken to the HOD’s office. More importantly, the warden had allegedly told the doctors that Sradha had fainted instead of immediately informing them about her suicide attempt. The students suspected that this may have delayed proper treatment and cost Sradha’s life. “We are asking to see Sister Maya, but they are not letting us. They are not giving us any answers or explanation,” says Aman, one of the students protesting outside the college.
There is a lot of slut-shaming of female students, one of the protesting women told the media. They have been called “Red Street girls”, she said. “You should hear what these nuns who are supposed to be the ‘angels of god’ tell us,” she said.
In another video, a male student says it is not a college but a prison and that they are staying there, thinking of the money their parents have spent on them.
A former female student who studied at the college in the 2015 batch told TNM that the hostel wardens in her time were very intrusive in the private lives of the students. “They frowned upon the use of mobile phones – even the basic ones – by students. Even the Non-Resident-Indian students were not expected to use phones. Once, on a day before our Graphics exam, we were summoned to the chapel and told in a very demeaning language that they know where all we hide our phones. They would check every room and even break open locked shelves to get our phones and go through the content and then judge us. They would make loud accusations for everyone to hear," she said.
Even though the atmosphere in the college was not as toxic as in the hostel, there were still attempts to silence the students, she added. A large strike by the students during her time was crushed by the management when they involved the parents in it. "It is sad that it takes the death of a student for us to take these issues seriously," the alumni said.
Anandhu Suresh, another former student, said he and many others have had similar or worse experiences as Sharis. “They play with the life of students, tire them mentally and see them like slaves. If you oppose any of it, they will try to destroy your life. They even find pleasure in the helpless state of the parents. They are like cannibals, who kill you without killing. I just want to tell the kids who study there now to somehow survive their years there.”
As the family is coming to terms with Sradha’s death and the police case, students of the college have continued their protest. The police are also at the campus, controlling the protests. They have arrested some of the members of political youth wings who joined the protest.
The students were joined by members of the Student Federation of India (SFI) on Monday. By Tuesday, other political youth groups, such as the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), also joined the protest.