Inspired by the philosophy of social justice, the group’s mission is to support the academic, professional and social progress of students as well as to advocate for better diversity in higher education.

Identifying the problem(s)

The alumni group first focused on assisting IIT Kanpur graduates who were yet to find employment and started a mentorship programme in April 2023. Right away, the group reckoned with challenges like psychological pressure on students, partly because of a false public assumption that all IITians receive large compensation packages. This is bolstered by the fact that IITs never reveal the number of students who remain unplaced.

Apart from mental stress, discrimination, and language barriers, SC/ST students talked about the lack of available mechanisms such as dedicated mentoring with standard placement guidance and an SC/ST cell. These students reported feelings of social isolation, and imposter syndrome, and said they received inadequate support from the faculty.

The group was able to assist 20 students in finding employment by August.

Around the same time, two Dalit students, Ayush Ashna and Kumar, died by suicide on the campus of IIT Delhi. Rattled, the alumni group decided to extend the mentorship programme to all IITs.

In October 2023, the group introduced a special pro bono career mentorship programme for the final year undergraduate as well as postgraduate students in all the 23 IITs. We emailed all the IITs asking them to inform the SC/ST students enrolled with them about the mentoring programme. Only a few responded positively. Word-of-mouth, social media, and print helped us reach out to the intended student population.

The programme eventually attracted 350 students from 15 IITs. These students were trained in preparing a CV, enhancing their communication skills, and taking part in mock interviews led by professionals. They also received individual feedback, and we helped locate off-campus employment.

Aid through contextual mentoring

What makes this programme special is the contextual mentoring by 50 alumni mentors who share similar backgrounds, have overcome comparable challenges, and are thriving in their careers.

Additionally, mentors connected students in critical situations to medical professionals who could offer emotional aid.

One such instance cropped up when a student from IIT Kharagpur reached out to us with thoughts of suicide and pleaded for assistance. We took immediate action, arranging for the student to see a psychiatrist to defuse the crisis. There were other instances of a similar nature as nearly half the students in the programme identified emotional support as their biggest need of the hour.

The other need they identified was mentoring to tackle the challenging job market.

Our first triumph came early. Rajesh, an IIT Guwahati student, had difficulty speaking in English and reverted to Hindi during a group discussion. Upon seeing him, others did the same. Eventually, he aced the interview round and was hired. Rajesh’s father works as a daily wage labourer in Gujarat. How did the family respond to the wonderful news, we asked him. "They are happy, but do not know beyond that," he stated plainly.

Our work began to pay off and we received messages proving this.

“Dear Sir, I got placed. I am grateful to you for your initiation and efforts to give us such detailed and effective guidance. I am really happy that individuals like you are still there, giving their precious time and efforts to help others. I am eagerly waiting for the opportunity to contribute and give back,” Anand, an IIT Kanpur student, said.

“I got placed and I thank you with all my heart, for all the support you gave. The podcast and mock interviews helped me to keep pushing myself even at Day 8 [of placements] [when I] lost all hope,” Asha, an IIT Kharagpur student, wrote to us.

“I read messages, struggled, practised mocks, and after five failed interviews I finally got placed,” Vandana, an IIT Guwahati student, told us.

To date, more than 100 students who were part of the mentoring programme have been placed in jobs in a range of multinational companies.

Unquestionably, the mentorship initiative's successful social experiment has demonstrated how much students, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, require alumni support to navigate the challenges of their education, careers, and personal lives.

We hope that mentorship programmes become a mainstay at the IITs to address some of their urgent problems, such as making sure their students have excellent job possibilities and preventing fatalities on campus.

Dheeraj Singh, an IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta alumnus, is a strategy and finance professional based in Gurugram. He is the founder of the Global IIT Alumni Support Group. The views expressed are personal.