IIT Kharagpur Wants Students to Run to Mommy. ‘Campus Mothers’ Is Regression Not Innovation
Sreelaja Nair and Suhita Nadkarni | 11 July 2025 | The Print
At a time when gender equity discussions are taking centre stage, IIT Kharagpur’s reductive framing of women through the ‘Campus Mothers’ initiative as default caregivers is tragically regressive. Reinforcing outdated gender norms under the guise of support, it sidelines efforts for gender parity and ultimately does a disservice to all genders.
The urgent need to expand mental health support on college campuses and create multiple avenues of care and intervention is not under debate here. What merits scathing scrutiny is the blatant gender stereotyping disguised as an innovative initiative. The core idea of community-based healthcare initiatives like ‘Campus Mothers’ is not new. One of the earliest examples is Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), developed in the US in the 1970s, which includes Peer Support Specialists to provide mental health support…