'Suicide Saviour Fan': Thane 15-year-old girl’s innovation offers hope amid India’s student mental health crisis

KALYAN: At a time when academic pressure and emotional stress are taking a heavy toll on young minds, a remarkable life-saving innovation has emerged from a school classroom in Kalyan.

Anuska Nandi, a 15-year-old Class 10 student of B. K. Birla Public School, has invented the “Suicide Saviour Fan”, a specially designed ceiling fan system aimed at preventing suicides among students living in hostels and paying guest accommodations, particularly in high-pressure institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and coaching centres like Kota.

India has witnessed a disturbing rise in student suicides, especially among engineering aspirants and college students facing intense competition, academic pressure, and emotional isolation. Hostel rooms, often fitted with ceiling fans, have tragically become the setting for many such incidents. Deeply affected by frequent newspaper reports, Anuska decided to channel her scientific curiosity and social concern into a practical solution that could help save lives.

Anuska, who dreams of becoming a scientist, says she regularly read news about students dying by suicide in IITs and coaching institutes like Kota. Observing that ceiling fans were commonly used in such incidents, she felt the need to create a device that could interrupt an impulsive moment and give students a chance to survive. With this thought, she conceptualized the Suicide Saviour Fan.

The fan functions like a regular ceiling fan under normal conditions and does not interfere with daily usage. However, it is equipped with a smart safety mechanism that detects abnormal or sudden excess weight. The system uses a shock-up spring for weight detection and a limit switch that gets activated when unusual load is applied. Once triggered, the limit switch sends a signal to an alarm system, and a contactor holds the switch continuously until it is manually reset.

For automated communication and emergency alerts, the device uses Arduino Uno and a GSM module. As soon as the Arduino receives a signal from the limit switch, the GSM module immediately sends an alert message to pre-authorized phone numbers and then places repeated phone calls at every five-second interval. This ensures that wardens, parents, or concerned authorities are informed without delay. Importantly, the system works without alerting other students and does not break or damage the fan.

The Suicide Saviour Fan is designed to be compatible with existing hostel infrastructure, making it suitable for mass installation. It is cost-effective, requires minimal maintenance, and operates silently, appearing no different from a normal ceiling fan while serving as a life-saving device in moments of crisis.

Anuska has submitted her invention for patent registration to Intellectual Property India, which, after verification, has officially published the application. This recognition marks a significant achievement for a school student innovator.

She comes from a family with a strong academic and scientific background. Her father, Dr. Shyam Sundar Nandi, is a scientist, while her mother, Sanchita Nandi, was earlier a lecturer at a Central Railway Junior college and has currently taken a break from work to focus on her daughter’s education.

Both parents have expressed immense pride in Anuska’s work. Dr. Nandi says his daughter has always wanted to do something different and has consistently participated in school-level and international science competitions, winning several awards.

Her mother Sanchita says she feels proud that Anuska has created an invention that could help prevent suicides among young and intelligent students in premier institutions like IITs and other leading institutes across the country.

The entire device was developed within the school premises with support from the physics faculty. Anuska independently developed the idea and technology, while the school provided continuous encouragement. She has especially acknowledged the help of assistant lab assistant Prakash Mahajan, who supported her by arranging the required materials for building the device. Anuska also said that the B. K. Birla Public School management, especially Principal Ranjana Jangra and her teacher Suman Iyer, constantly inspires students to think innovatively and do something new, and she credited their encouragement and support as an important factor behind her innovation.

Educators, parents, and social activists during recent science exhibition at school when Anushka revealed about her innovation welcomed the Suicide Saviour Fan and have called upon educational authorities, hostel administrators, and coaching institutes to consider piloting and adopting the innovation.

If implemented on a larger scale, the device could become a standard safety feature in student accommodations.

From a school laboratory in Kalyan, Anuska Nandi’s innovation stands as a powerful reminder that age is no barrier to meaningful change. As India continues to face serious student mental health challenges, the Suicide Saviour Fan offers a ray of hope, showing how empathy and science together can help save lives.
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