EY employee death: FM Sitharaman says colleges should provide ‘stress management lessons’

While speaking about the tragic death of Ernest and Young's (EY) former employee Anna Sebastian Perayil, who apparently succumbedto work pressure, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (Sep22) called out the colleges and universities to provide “stress management lessons” to the students.

The death of 26-year-old Anna has taken the country by storm and has ignited a debate on the toxic work culture prevalent at some top consulting firms.

The debate started after the heart-wrenching letter of the 26-year-old's mother Anita Augustine went viral, in which she blamed Ernst & Young's toxic work culture for her daughter's death.

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Anna had joined the audit and assurance team of the company in Pune in March of this year and died after four months allegedly because of extreme work stress.

Sitharaman says achieving divinity and seeking God will help handle work stress

Speaking at an event organised in a college in Chennai, the finance minister said that the educational institutions apart from providing good education and campus placement, should also teach some other things.

FM Sitharaman said that she “…was discussing an issue that is in the news for the past two days…a woman who had studied CA well, unable to cope with the work pressure, two-three days ago we received a news — she died unable to cope up with the pressure.”

“I was discussing an issue that has been in newspapers for the past two days. Our children go to colleges and universities for education and come out with flying colours," she added.

She further emphasised that people can gain the strength to handle pressure by achieving divinity.

“Believe in God, we need to have God's grace. Seek God, and learn good discipline. Your Atma shakti will grow only from this. The inner strength will come only with growing Atma Shakti…Educational institutions should bring in divinity and spirituality. Then only will our children get the inner strength. It will help in their progress and the country. That is my strong belief,” the finance minister said.

Congress reacts to Sitharaman's remarks, calls it 'downright cruel'

Congress General Secretary (Organisation), K C Venugopal slammed Sitharaman for her remarks.

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“The ruling regime and the Finance Minister can only see the pain of corporate giants like Adani and Ambani, not the pain of the hardworking and toiling young generation where freshers like Anna are exploited by the greedy corporate system… It is downright cruel on the part of the FM to blame Anna and her family for suggesting that she should have learnt stress management at home. This kind of victim-blaming is despicable and no words can convey the anger and disgust one feels because of such statements," the leader said.

"How heartless can this government be? Have they lost all sense of empathy? The parents are still recovering from this terrible tragedy. The toxic work environment should have triggered an honest review of corporate practices and led to necessary reforms that protect employees,” Venugopal said.

(With inputs from agencies)