'122 students of premier institutes committed suicide during 2014-21'

New Delhi: In a startling revelation, it has come to the notice that 122 students of IITs, IIMs, central universities and other centrally funded higher educational institutions committed suicide during 2014-21.

In a written reply to a question raised by DMK MP AKP Chinraj in Lok Sabha, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that of the 122 students who committed suicide, 24 belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC), 41 to Other Backward Classes (OBC), three to Scheduled Tribe (ST) and three students were from the Minority category. As per the data, of the total suicides, 71 belonged to SC, ST, OBC and minority category

According to the information provided by the minister, all the 122 incidents of suicides by the students were reported during 2014 to 2021 from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), central universities, Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), National Institute of Technology (NITs) and other centrally funded technical institutions such as NITIE, Mumbai, SLIET Longowala.

The number of suicide incidents by students of various IITs during the period was 34, while four students from different IIMs took the extreme step. Nine students from IISc Bangalore and Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) had committed suicide during 2014-21, while four such students were from Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

The highest number of 37 suicide incidents reported from central universities, followed by the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) which reported 30 incidents of student suicides. Notably, the suicide incident of Rohith Vemula, who was a PhD scholar in Hyderabad University, had hit the headlines as a case of state-sponsored discrimination against Dalits in universities.

However, the Education Minister said that the government and University Grants Commission (UGC) have taken several initiatives to check the incidents of harassment and discrimination of students. UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2019 have been formulated to safeguard the interests of the students. Further, the ministry has undertaken various steps such as peer-assisted learning, the introduction of technical education in regional languages for students in order to ease the academic stress, the minister said.

"The government initiative, named MANODARPAN, covers a wide range of activities to provide psychological support to students, teachers and families for mental and emotional wellbeing during the Covid-19 outbreak and beyond," he said.

"Further, students, wardens and caretakers are sensitised to bring to notice the signs of depression in fellow students to the authorities so that timely clinical consultation may be provided," he added.