According to media reports, 20 IIT students committed suicide in the last year alone. On February 16, a 24-year-old MTech student of IIT Delhi was found hanging inside his hostel room, and in another instance, three suicides were reported in IIT Kanpur since mid December 2023 and January 2024. With such rapid surge in suicide cases, many students, parents as well as activists are calling out IITs to bring about a change in their system. Since the beginning of 2024, there have been 5 incidents reported, including 2 in IIT Kanpur, 1 each in IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and IIT BHU.
Panav Jain, a fourth year BTech student committed suicide at his Delhi home, due to alleged academic stress. “It’s not only a personal loss, but if we are losing such a bright mind, then i believe it is also a loss to the whole country,” said father of 23-year-old Jain who committed suicide on November 2, 2023.
“My son was under a lot of pressure due to a project and I even went to his professor with folded hands to consider his submission but he refused to entertain us,” said Jain’s father. “I don’t understand why these institutes are so rigid. I asked them to change his counsellor because we were not comfortable with him but they wouldn’t even consider that,” he added. He also blamed the high competition in IITs and the low return that the students get after enrollment.
His father continued, “my son was also stressed about not getting an internship and because internships provide a surety regarding placements to the students to a certain extent, he was very worried about his future. These are one of the premier institutes in the country and if they cannot provide them with an internship, I wonder if enrolling in a normal stress-free college is better than this.”
Upon reaching out to the officials from IIT Delhi they refused to comment on the issue.
Dheeraj Singh, an IIT alumnus who is actively working on suicide prevention in higher education institutes said, “IITs have chronically 34% higher suicide death rate compared to other colleges in India and abroad with similar annual budget spend per student.” He further added, “Government being the principal funder of IITs must bring about a serious policy response to remedy the mental health crisis in premier institutes such as IITs, NITs and IISc.”
Placement opportunities a big problem
Students believe that despite having good counsellors in place, the problem lies with the placement opportunities. “There is an issue in course and job offers, students are being taught something in which there is no job,” said Anand Kumar Yadav, Research Scholar at IIT Kanpur. He further added, “placement statistics are falsely presented by nearly all IITs and coaching institutes further manipulate it to harness their own profit. The reality is far away from these stats.”
Postgraduate students are worried about too much power in the hands of their supervisors which in turn hampers their degree and time. A masters student from IIT Kanpur said, “for postgraduate students, the degree lies in the hands of their supervisors and I have personally experienced them to be too harsh because of which the degree and job of a student is hampered,” he said, adding that if things are not taken care of soon, the statistics will just keep on increasing.
IIT Roorkee attendance issue
A 20-year-old Hyderabadi student at IIT Roorkee committed suicide in her hostel room in the Himalayan Bhawan hostel in mid-February and her body was discovered 3-4 days later. A student from IIT Roorkee who wished to remain anonymous told FPJ, “the girl who committed suicide in our college was actually very good in studies but she could not attend classes due to bad mental health and therefore had low attendance.” According to previous media reports it was suggested that the student was dealing with mental health issues because of her parents separation.
Another student from IIT Roorkee said, “We could not sleep for nights after getting to know about the incident. Many girls who lived in the same block could not go to classes for one week straight, but the administration did not even try to help them and instead they stopped all the cultural activities.”
Officials from IIT Roorkee are yet to respond on the issue.
IIT Delhi's student demands
The recent suicide of a 24-year-old MTech student at IIT Delhi on 16 February led students to organize a protest and they demanded changes in the way the institute functioned. The masters students presented a set of demands at the Open House organised in the campus and complained about the high SGPA criteria for the continuation of stipend in IIT Delhi. According to a RTI filed by the students, IIT Delhi requires the highest SGPA of 7/6.75 for stipend amongst its peers. According to them, 218 out of 560 are stressed about SGPA criterion for stipend and demanded a reduction of SGPA to 6.
Similarly, undergraduate students from IIT Delhi demanded counselling services to be separate from the office of student affairs. They want either an autonomous body or a different office for the same.
Parents looking other way
The increasing suicide rate has also prompted Indra Sharma to look in a different direction other than the IITs for their children. Sharma, whose daughter is enrolled in a coaching centre preparing for JEE said, “all these news about students committing suicide has actually scared me a lot. I don’t want my daughter to face that kind of pressure. What will be the use of all this hard work if she will have to face such a tough environment there. It will be better if she goes abroad for her studies.” On asking if she is considering for her daughter to drop out from the coaching, she said, “I might do that if things do not change.”
How are IITs tackling this issue?
The IITs in response are strengthening their counselling sessions and organising workshops, seminars as well as a plethora of extra curricular activities. For instance, IIT Kanpur came out with a detailed guidelines and measures to address the increasing suicide cases in the campus. The guideline included starting additional welfare initiatives for the students, such as individualised mental health support, hand-holding by senior PG students to ensure smooth transition and interactive hostel-level events to keep students engaged amongst other things.
Last year, IIT Madras also came out with measures such as facial recognition attendance system so that they can keep a track on students and if they are attending classes regularly. Longer absence would translate in the authorities checking up on the student. It has also launched an app coordinated parents visit so that students can have regular interaction with them. These were a part of the suicide prevention measures by the institute.
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