58% students died by suicide in IITs, NITs, central universities, other central institutions in 2014-21

In the past eight years, premier technical institutions and central universities witnessed 58 percent of student suicides from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and minority communities.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has presented the data in Lok Sabha that educational institutions like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) along with central universities saw a total of 122 suicide cases.

In the past eight years, premier technical institutions and central universities witnessed 58 percent of student suicides from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and minority communities.

A majority of suicides were reported from the Other Backward Castes (OBC), especially in Central Universities, the data presented by the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan showed. A total of 41 students from the OBC community died by suicide between 2014 and 2021. A total of 14 such cases were reported in Central Universities; followed by IITs and NITs with 14 and 11 cases respectively. NITs alone reported a total of 30 student suicides in the same period. Meanwhile, 37 students died by suicide in Central Universities across India of whom 24 students belonged to the SC community.

Other prominent institutions like, IISc Bengaluru and IISER witnessed a total of nine suicide deaths among which four were reserved category students. Indian Institute of Management or IIMs and other centrally funded institutions recorded five and four such cases respectively.

According to the ministry of education data, the IITs recorded 34 death by suicides of which 18 were from SC and OBC communities. The IITs have repeatedly come under heavy criticism for caste discrimination with several incidents surfacing in the past few months. Several students in engineering students have reported cases of institutional discrimination and explicit threats from teachers in the recent past.

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