Mumbai: The worldwide web has taken a toll in the most unlikely territory in India, or so it seems.
The Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay on Monday restricted Internet access for its students in all its 13 hostels, saying Internet addiction is affecting the academic performance of the students and even making them suicidal.
IIT Bombay has seen two suicides in two years and several attempts.
IIT Bombay's dean of student affairs, Prakash Gopalan, said addiction to surfing, gaming and blogging has also made the students reclusive. "There has been a decline in academic performance and also participation in sporting, cultural and social activities has gone down," he says.
Citing specific instances, Gopalan said now a student doesn't even know who lives two doors away from him because he is so busy on the Internet. "They have stopped socialising and they come late for morning classes or slept through them," he said.
"The old hostel culture of camaraderie and socialising among students is gone. This is not healthy in our opinion," Reuters quoted Gopalan as saying.
IIT Bombay is one of the topmost engineering schools in the country with about 5,000 students. India's IITs are considered a talent pool for global technology giants. But their exacting curriculum, tough competition and reclusive campus lifestyle have taken a toll on students.
Depression and dysfunctional lifestyles are known to be common among IIT students, and at least nine have committed suicide in the past five years.
Till Monday, the IIT students had unlimited free Internet access in their hostel rooms. While the Internet facilities were meant for helping them in their studies, there was an increasing trend among the students to use Internet to surf, chat, download movies and music, blog and for gaming.
Starting Monday, Internet access will be barred between 2300 hrs, IST and 0030 hrs, IST at all its hostels to encourage students to sleep early and to try and force them out of their 'shells', Gopalan said.
But the move has not gone down well with students who say they hate their lives being regulated. "Now they will say we need to listen to a lullaby to go to sleep," said Rajiv, an electronics student who gave only one name.
Student anger has also spilled on to several blogs run by IIT alumni where bloggers say "the birth of the virtual world had led to the death of the real selves," but add that they resent regulation of students' activities. Gopalan said authorities at the other IITs were considering a similar curb in their hostels.
(With Reuters inputs)
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