In 5 yrs, 27 students of 10 IITS killed selves: RTI

INDORE: Twenty seven students across 10 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) in the country have committed suicide in the last five years, reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed.

As per the data provided by the Department of Higher Education working under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), IIT Madras tops the list with suicides by seven students during this period.

In the reply to a query asked by RTI activist Chandrashekhar Gaur on December 2, the MHRD said that between 2014 and 2019, seven students from IIT Madras, five from IIT Kharagpur and three each from IIT Delhi and IIT Hyderabad committed suicide.

Two students each from IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee also ended their lives during the period, it said.

During this period, one each student from Varanasi’s IIT (BHU), IIT (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad and IIT Kanpur took the extreme step.

However, no reply was given to the query which sought to know the reasons behind the IIT students’ suicides.

When asked about the measures taken to prevent student suicides in the country’s premier technical institutes, the reply said, “Systems are in place in IITS to enquire and take action in all complaints received from students in IIT campuses.”

Meanwhile, Anand Kumar, founder of “Super 30”, a Patnabased institute giving coaching to meritorious students from poor families to prepare for the IIT entrance examination, expressed concern over the suicides.

Kumar said, “The nature of selection process for IITS needs to be changed. Students with innovative skills who are able to withstand various pressures of life should be given preference during selection.”