New Delhi:  The first phase of placements at the IITs have started. And in the last couple of days, there have been many who are in the news for receiving more than Rs 1 crore salary packages. While it is a very positive news for the IITians and students across India, it also has attracted criticisms from peer and parents owing to a number of concerns.

On this note, the IITs on Wednesday have decided not to reveal any pay package figures from this placement season. Although they had this rule figured earlier, but this time the IITs took a conscious decision to implement it. Says Prof Sudhirkumar Barai, chairman, Career development centre at IIT Kharagpur to a news agency, “Disclosing salaries puts unnecessary pressure on students. It kickstarts peer pressure as well as parental and societal pressure. People forget that only very few of them actually get those fat pay packages of over a crore. The minimum and average salaries are much less.”

The IITs used to disclose salaries of the students but used to keep their identities secret from the public. But there have been instances where students have come up in front and gone ahead in telling the world about their massive pay packages. Recently an IIT-Kgp student had disclosed directly before the media that he bagged an annual package of Rs 2 crore from Google after finishing interview.  But as Barai points out, these disclosures are just one of a kind; the average salaries are far less than this. "We have noticed that only the highest salary is discussed. But people forget that the average salary which an IITian gets is far less than the fattest one," Barai said. However, he added, “we can’t stop students from making any disclosures on their own.”

Another issue lies with the employers as many of them have a confidentiality clause in their job contract which restricts them to publicly disclose their remuneration. In some cases, security and safety of the passouts and their families could be another cause of concern as they might even get kidnapped for a ransom, he feared. 

A decision to this effect was taken recently at a meeting of All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC) in Guwahati.  There are 16 IITs in the country.

Related: Why should salaries be confidential?