A Suicide at IIT Bombay

The suicide of an engineering student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) after he was allegedly caught cheating during an examination has sparked an uproar within the institution and beyond. Allegations that the student was subjected to “caste oppression” have surfaced repeatedly since the suicide was reported on September 19. These allegations have been made by the student’s family and, unsurprisingly, by activists of all hues. The faculty member who was present when the alleged incident of cheating took place has been removed from his administrative position.

The first thing to note and stress in this case is that a fair and just probe into the incident in its totality—from what happened during the examination until the student took his life—is in order. This probe should be conducted speedily and should be kept free from any pressure, political or social. Second, the matter ought to be treated with some sensitivity: a young student has taken his life and his family is distraught. There is no room for casting aspersions on the student, his family, or the faculty member in question until a proper probe has been conducted. Finally, outlandish suggestions like “make cheating permissible” or diluting academic standards to “save” students are the stuff of anarchy. IITs, or for that matter other institutions, are not the place for such ideas.

Is caste discrimination a factor behind students committing suicides in these prestigious institutions? While some activists have tried to belabour this point, the available data does not support that conclusion. On September 23, Hindustan Times published a report citing government data on suicides and unnatural deaths in IITs. In the five years between 2020–21 and 2024–25, these institutions reported 45 suicides and eight unnatural deaths among students—53 deaths in all. Of these deaths, the most were reported for general category students: 23 deaths, or 43.4 per cent of the total. Twelve deaths were reported among students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 10 for Scheduled Caste (SC) students, seven for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, and one death was reported for a student from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category. Clearly, most victims belonged to the general category, unless one wants to club together all OBC, SC and ST students in an artificial category to demonstrate “caste oppression”.

For anyone familiar with the process of securing admission to the IITs, these figures should not come as a surprise. At one time, some decades ago, preparation for the entrance examination to these institutions—the Joint Entrance Examination or JEE—began in Class XI in school. Then, as time progressed, this stretched back to Class X; now it is not unusual to see school students begin preparation as early as Class IX. Consider the pressure behind such preparation: it entails four years of schooling and JEE preparation. By the time a student enters an IIT, if they are successful, it is not surprising that “burnout” is experienced by a large number of these young scholars.

That this is indeed an issue can be seen from another piece of data: the rising number of suicides among students in Kota, Rajasthan, a major hub for JEE examination preparation. An earlier report in Hindustan Times cited data showing 80 suicides by students between 2015 and 2019, or 16 cases per year during those years. In 2022, another 15 students committed suicide there.

These deaths and those in IITs should not be seen in isolation. They are part of the same trend of immense pressure on schoolchildren to perform in the JEE. Some give up along the way, while others end up taking their lives after gaining admission to an IIT. The years of stress and toil take a toll on these young people.

In the case of students admitted to IITs under affirmative action, this stress is likely to be even greater. This does not require great elaboration: coming from underprivileged backgrounds, the stresses are even more severe for them. While cheating in an examination cannot be condoned—that will spell the death of any academic institution—the stress to pass and perform is all too palpable.

The problem lies elsewhere. One cannot short-circuit the process of academic excellence. IITs, it is obvious, are designed to nurture engineering talent of the highest order in India. There is a good reason they represent the pinnacle of engineering academia in the country. There are hundreds of lower-ranked engineering colleges across the length and breadth of India. One does not hear of frequent instances where students take their lives in these colleges. The reason is not hard to find: the curriculum, pace of teaching, expectations of students, and outcomes are different in these colleges when compared to the IITs.

Efforts to short-circuit the quest for excellence do not yield results, anywhere. A much more humane and understanding approach would be to let students go to educational institutions that are in line with their abilities. It is high time that “IITs or bust” was ended as an unsaid, but very real, ideal. But it will be a dubious exercise to bring IITs down to the level of other engineering colleges merely to make them a more “humane” place. It is obvious that affirmative action is a constitutional guarantee that no government in India will tinker with, for obvious reasons.

For their part, the IITs have done all that they could to ensure that these tragedies do not repeat themselves. Counselling, extra courses for students who are relatively underprepared, and close monitoring of students by faculty members are now part of the educational drill in these institutions. It is worth pointing out that these measures were not part of the original mandate of the IITs when they were established. There is no need to blame them or their faculty members for situations that are not under their control.