Darshan Solanki, an eighteen-year-old Dalit student on February 18, allegedly jumped off the seventh floor of his hostel building at IIT-Bombay. Darshan is not the only one, there are many more suicides committed by students of such prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs, and NITs.
Data presented by the Ministry of Education showed a total of 33 IIT students committed suicide in the last 5 years. Sixty-one suicide incidents were reported in total during this time at the IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The data covers the 2018-2023 period.
According to the written response by Minister of State Education Subhas Sarkar, “academic stress, family reasons, personal reasons, mental health issues, etc. are some of the reasons for such suicide cases.”
The government reported to the Lok Sabha in December 2021 that 122 students registered in higher education institutions run by the Union government committed suicide between 2014 and 2021.
The recent wave of suicides has sparked a discussion about discrimination based on caste in elite institutions and the state of mental health. The IIT Council decided to recruit at least one mental health counselor on each campus during a meeting held on Tuesday at IIT Bhubaneswar amid mounting worries over student suicide fatalities.
During the meeting, the IIT Council discussed the student dropout rates and the mental well-being of students on campus. In the meeting that lasted more than seven hours and was presided over by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, this decision was made.
The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including students’ mental health and welfare. Pradhan emphasized the importance of creating a “robust mechanism of zero tolerance for discrimination in institutes.”