TL;DR
- Mayagha Mathew, a student at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, passed away on the morning of February 16, 2026.
- She hadn’t eaten and was rushing to mandatory morning assembly due to strict gate timings.
- She suffered a seizure and fell, fatally injuring her neck. Post-mortem results are pending.
- No attendance policy should cost a student their life.
- We demand the removal of compulsory assembly, flexible gate timings, and emergency medical response on campus.
- Sign the petition below to add your name to the demand for change.
- Submit an anonymous tip if you have any information about this incident.
What Happened
On the morning of February 16, 2026, Mayagha Mathew — a student at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences in Coimbatore — woke up, skipped food, and rushed out the door. Like thousands of students on this campus, she had no choice. The gate closes at a fixed time. Assembly attendance is mandatory. Being late has consequences.
She didn’t make it.
While rushing, Mayagha suffered a seizure. She fell. The impact fatally injured her neck.
By the time help arrived, it was too late. Mayagha was gone.
She was a student. She was one of us. She was alive that morning, and now she’s not — because our campus has decided that punctuality to a morning assembly is worth more than a student’s well-being.
Post-mortem results are still pending. But what we already know is enough.
The System That Failed Her
Let’s be honest about what happened here. This wasn’t just a tragic accident. This was a system failure.
At Karunya Institute, morning assembly isn’t optional. It’s compulsory. You show up, or you get marked absent. Your attendance drops. You face consequences — academically, personally, from the administration. Students live in fear of that gate closing.
There is no flexibility for students who are unwell. No grace period for those who haven’t eaten. No understanding that a human body has limits. The message from the administration is clear: be there, or else.
Mayagha hadn’t eaten. She was rushing. Her body gave out. And the institution that was supposed to protect her, educate her, care for her — that institution’s rules are what put her in that position.
We know this campus. We know the panic of hearing the gate is about to close. We know what it feels like to skip meals, to run on empty, to push through exhaustion because the system demands it.
Mayagha didn’t die because she was careless. She died because the system left her no room to take care of herself. Karunya’s attendance obsession cost her her life.
What We’re Asking For
We are not asking for chaos. We are not asking for the end of discipline. We are asking for basic humanity in how this institution treats its students. Here’s what must change:
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Remove compulsory morning assembly. Assembly should be optional. A student who needs to eat, rest, or manage a health condition should not be penalized for skipping it.
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End separate assembly attendance tracking. Assembly attendance should not be a metric that affects academic standing. Decouple it from grade-related consequences entirely.
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Extend gate timings and remove gate-rush pressure. The current system creates a daily stampede. Students sprint, skip meals, and panic. This is not discipline — it’s manufactured stress.
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Make events and special assemblies attendance-optional. Forced participation in events does not build community. It builds resentment.
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Establish on-campus emergency medical response. There must be trained first responders and a clear emergency protocol that can reach any student within minutes. A seizure on campus should not be a death sentence.
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Commission an independent review of campus safety policies. An external body — not the administration reviewing itself — should evaluate whether Karunya’s rules prioritize student safety or institutional control.
This Cannot Happen Again
Mayagha Mathew should be in class right now. She should be complaining about assignments, laughing with friends, planning her future. Instead, her family is planning a funeral. And we — her fellow students — are writing this because we don’t know what else to do.
We’re angry. We’re heartbroken. And we’re tired of watching this institution put its rules above our lives.
But anger alone changes nothing. So we’re channeling it. We’re demanding accountability. We’re putting our names on a petition — because if the administration won’t listen to one voice, maybe they’ll listen to hundreds.
Mayagha deserved better. We all deserve better.
If you’re a student at Karunya — or a parent, an alumnus, someone who cares — sign below. Let them know this isn’t something we’ll quietly forget.
Have Information?
If you have any details about this incident — what happened that morning, the response time, how the situation was handled — we want to hear from you.
Submit an anonymous, encrypted tip here →
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Rest in peace, Mayagha. We won’t let this be just another headline that fades away.