33 IIT students died by suicide in last 5 years: Govt

The data, which covers the 2018-2023 period, was shared in response to a question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP L Hanumanthaiah.

“Academic stress, family reasons, personal reasons, mental health issues, etc. are some of the reasons for such suicide cases,” according to the written response by Minister of State Education Subhas Sarkar.

It was not clear if the government data took into account the death by suicide of a B Tech student at IIT Madras on Tuesday. Last month, a second year research scholar also ended his life at the IIT Madras campus, while a first year student of chemical engineering died by suicide at IIT Bombay.

The spate of suicides have triggered a debate on the state of mental health and caste-based discrimination in the premier institutes. In December 2021, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that 122 students enrolled with higher educational institutes under the Union government died by suicide between 2014 and 2021.

Of the 122 students, 24 belonged to the SC community, three were STs and 41 were OBCs.

Asked about the measures taken to address the root cause of students’ suicides, the government on Wednesday said in its written response to the House that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has “provisions for counselling systems for handling stress and emotional adjustments in institutions”.

“The Ministry has undertaken various steps such as peer assisted learning, introduction of technical education in regional languages for students in order to ease the academic stress. The Government of India initiative, named MANODARPAN, covers a wide range of activities to provide psychological support to students, teachers and families for mental and emotional well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond,” it added.