IIT Bombay Sees 10 Suicides in Two Decades: RTI

At least 115 students from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have committed suicide since 2005, revealed an RTI data. The current year has already seen five such incidents.

 Of the total students, 10 suicides were reported in the IIT Bombay.

The RTI request was filed by Dheeraj Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and founder of the Global IIT Alumni Support Group. Singh started collecting information in February 2023, following the death of Darshan Solanki, a student at IIT Bombay. 

The data was gathered over eight months. Of the 115 suicides, 98 occurred within the campus, with 56 of these being hanging case. The remaining 17 took place off-campus. IIT Madras saw the highest statistic, recording 26 deaths between 2005 and 2024. IIT Kanpur followed with 18, then IIT Kharagpur with 13.

After Solanki's death made it to headlines, several IIT student organisations conducted internal surveys. The results showed that 61% of respondents attributed student deaths to academic stress. Other factors included harassment (6%), family issues (10%), and job insecurity (12%). The rest, 11%, cited other reasons.

Darshan Solanki's death led to IIT Bombay taking its own steps to address the issue. In a senate meeting last year, it was decided to drop one subject for first-year students. The goal was to reduce academic pressure and give freshers more time to adjust to campus life.

The University Grants Commission also launched several initiatives. They have urged universities to prioritise students' health, welfare, and psychological well-being on campus. 

The Indian government also introduced the Manodarpan programme during the pandemic to provide emotional help for students, teachers, and families. But the challenges are not just academic. The global slowdown and decrease in job prospects have added to the stress. Reports suggest that placements at all IITs have been less competitive in recent years.

Singh filed an RTI for the suicide data of all the IITs in the last 20 years. Then, the Ministry of Education's higher education department resisted the RTI and asked Singh to file separate RTIs for each institution. 

Later, the ministry of education ordered all IITs to share the data. However, he received data from only 13 out of 23 IITs. To fill in the gaps, he turned to public domain sources like the National Crime Record Bureau.