Ninety-eight students died by suicide in the past five years in higher education institutions, including central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs and IISERs, according to the Union Ministry of Education.
Twenty cases of student suicides have already been reported in higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2023 so far. These include nine cases from central universities and seven from IITs.
The data was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in the Rajya Sabha.
The minister informed that the majority of the suicide cases being reported in the last four years were from engineering institutions.
According to the data, of the 98 students who died by suicide, the maximum cases were from IITs (39), followed by NITs (25), central universities (25), IIMs (4), IISERs (3) and IIITs (2).
In terms of the year-wise breakup, the government data shows that 20 student suicides were reported in these institutions in 2023 so far, 24 in 2022, seven each in 2021 and 2020, 19 in 2019 and 21 in 2018.
In a separate question on category-wise suicides, the data revealed that of the seven cases in IITs this year, two students were from SC and one from OBC categories. Of the nine cases in central universities, six were from SC, ST, OBC and the minority communities.