45 IIT students died by suicide in 5 years in India

Online Desk: Forty-five (45) Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) students died by suicide between 2020 and 2025 in India.According to Kashmir Media Service, twenty-three Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) reported 45 student suicides between 2021 and 2025, with twenty-eight of them involving students from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.The numbers were compiled after official data was obtained from all the IITs for a provisionally admitted Indian Lok Sabha starred question dated December 8, 2025. The 28 students accounted for more than 62 per cent of all suicides reported by the IITs during the period.IIT-Hyderabad reported the highest number of suicides over the five years at seven. IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur reported six each, while IIT-Madras reported five and IIT (BHU)-Varanasi four.In 2024-25, four of the 13 students who died by suicide were from OBC, three from ST and two from SC communities, while four were from the General category.The compilation separately records eight unnatural deaths over the five years. They are not included in the figure of 45 suicides. However, the document does not provide the course-wise break-up of the students who died by suicide or details of the circumstances surrounding their deaths.The fact that the majority of those who died by suicide belong to downtrodden and marginalized communities has raised serious concerns. Experts believe that caste-based discrimination and derogatory remarks targeting race, religion and ethnicity are among the key factors behind these tragic incidents.