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Mumbai. A recent RTI data has found out that suicide incidents are increasingly becoming a trend among all the IIT campuses across India. RTI query has revealed that in the last five years, i.e. from 2019-20 to 2023-24, 37 students committed suicide in 11 out of 23 IITs. Of these, six students were from IIT Delhi alone. Seven students each committed suicide in IIT Hyderabad and IIT Madras, while six in IIT Delhi, four in IIT BHU and three each in IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur. Last year, Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar presented suicide data related to IITs in the Rajya Sabha, stating that the reasons for these suicides include academic pressure, family and personal problems and mental health problems.

IIT Hyderabad and IIT Madras most notorious

RTI activist Vivek Pandey said that IIT Hyderabad and IIT Madras each saw seven suicides, while IIT Delhi reported six, IIT BHU four, and IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur each reported three suicides. Two students each committed suicide in IIT Bombay and IIT Dhanbad, while one student each committed suicide in IIT Roorkee, IIT Dharwad and IIT Gandhinagar. The report said that no suicides were reported from the remaining 12 IITs, including Goa, Bhilai, Jammu, Patna, Jodhpur, Ropar, Indore, Mandi and Palakkad.

India have highest rate of suicide among youth

India have the highest rate of suicide among youth aged 15 to 29 in the world. It is twice the global average! What is worrying is that students of institutions like IITs, IIMs and medical colleges are also not untouched by this. An IIT student said that many things fuel this problem of suicide. First of all, students coming from far-off places suffer from loneliness, due to which they reduce their socializing. The second big challenge is the huge pressure of studies. Studying in IIT is very difficult and students are under pressure to perform well all the time. A similar situation is happening in NEET as well. Especially in Kota, Rajasthan, dozens of students are committing suicide every year. But no one has any solution for this. Students are committing suicide due to fear of getting low marks, failing and social stigma.