NEW DELHI: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has raised concerns over the rising incidence of student suicides in higher educational institutions, saying the recent death of an IIT Delhi student highlighted a wider systemic crisis of student distress in India.
In a post on X, Gogoi said the incident should prompt educational institutions and authorities to examine the structural factors contributing to student distress.
Citing media reports, he claimed that it was the eighth student suicide at IIT Delhi in the past 30 months, including two students from the Scheduled Caste community.
Gogoi also cited National Crime Records Bureau data, saying 14,488 student suicides were recorded in 2024, including 2,032 attributed to examination failure.
Referring to Supreme Court observations, Gogoi said student suicides had been described as a “suicide epidemic”, with academic pressure, caste discrimination, financial difficulties, sexual harassment, examination failure and ragging among the factors contributing to distress.
He also referred to the National Task Force constituted by the Supreme Court, which, he said, had warned that student suicides were the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger crisis and criticised institutions for treating suicide as an individual issue rather than addressing structural shortcomings.
Gogoi said existing interventions remained largely generic and reactive, with inadequate accountability and weak implementation.
The issue gained renewed attention following the death of a 31-year-old MSc Physics student at IIT Delhi on August 22. The incident triggered protests on the campus, with students demanding an independent inquiry and greater institutional accountability.
