IIT Bombay has restricted Internet access in its hostels, saying addiction to surfing, gaming and blogging was affecting students performance, making them reclusive and even suicidal.
Authorities at the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai said students had stopped socialising and many were late for morning classes or slept through them.

“Now, a student doesn’t even know who lives two doors away from him because he is so busy on the Internet”, said Prakash Gopalan, dean of student affairs. The old hostel culture of camaraderie and socialising among students is gone. This is not healthy in our opinion. IIT-Mumbai, with about 5,000 students, is one of seven IITs across India which are considered to be among the finest engineering schools in the world. 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. IIT-Mumbai has seen two suicides in two years and several attempts.
Students have unlimited free Internet access in their hostel rooms to help them in their studies, but many also use it to surf, chat, download movies and music, blog and for gaming.
“Starting Monday, Internet access will be barred between 11pm and 12.30pm at IIT-Mumbai’s 13 hostels to encourage students to sleep early and to try and force them out of their shells”, Gopalan said.
“There has been a decline in academic performance and also participation in sporting, cultural and social activities has gone down”, he said.
But the move has not gone down well with students who say they hate their lives being regulated.
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.
Looking at India from a global perspective, it is difficult to see how India can actually catch up. Advances in technology, connectivity, and usage of the net are increasing so rapidly that even in developed countries it is hard to keep up.
At present, the percentage of Indians connected to the Net is less than a fraction of 1%. Even if it soars to 50mn over the next five years, as predicted, that represents at most 5% of the population.
In any event, it seems likely that in the future those that can pay for it will have adequate access to the great global community.
As in even developed countries, those that can’t pay for it, or lack the skills to use it, will be left behind. Unfortunately in India, this disadvantaged group will still be the majority well into the current century.
Until the country can mobilise the resources, the education, and the infrastructure to provide a much larger section of its population both the means and the reason to access the Internet, India will not truly join the global community