On the Edge: A sharp rise in teen suicides in India raises urgent questions about how to tackle the crisis

I WAS IN MUMBAI this month to attend a laying-to-rest-the-ashes ceremony of a departed 15-year-old, the beloved youngest son of a very dear friend of more than three decades. It wasn’t an occasion where anyone could be consoled, but one ends up doing it by force of habit. My grandmother had told me ages ago when I was a teen my­self that parents never overcome the passing of their children, especially when they are teenagers or young adults. She had lost two, one aged 10 and another 16.

Losing a son or a daughter to suicide could be the worst of such tragedies, much more than when they fall victim to an epi­demic or a disease or even an accident. A lack of closure is remote in a suicide death, painfully out of reach. Why did he or she do it? Was it our fault? In most cases, the answers remain lost to us, turning grief into a lifelong search for meaning.

Over the past several days, I have confronted several news­paper headlines screaming harrowing tales of loss: “14-year-old student dies by suicide at Maharashtra residential school”; “Teen hangs herself in Chhattisgarh school; principal held after suicide note alleges molestation”; “Delhi student commits suicide: Are schools, families missing the warning signs?” I can jot down many more here. The question that crops up is: what on earth is happening? India reports more youth suicides than anywhere in the world. True, we are the most populous nation, and yet a closer look at the num­bers reveals a disquieting truth: teens and young adults in India, who fall under the category of stu­dents, commit suicide at a rate higher than not only the global average, but also compared with the rest of the country’s population.

A comprehensive study by researchers such as Dr Subhendu Kumar Acharya of the Indian Council of Medical Research and others, analys­ing 26 years of Indian crime data, reveals startling figures. “The proportion of India’s adolescent population to that of the world, as per the recent data, stands highest at 253 million among all the countries, fol­lowed by China at 168 million… It can be observed that 1.3 mil­lion deaths among children and youth combined took place due to suicide [from 1995 to 2021]. This number is about 40% of the approximately 3.3 million total suicides [including all age groups] in the country that happened in India during these 26 years,” says the report.

This study, published in late 2024, covered 1995 to 2021. Since 2014, in particular, the numbers have kept rising. The number of student suicides in the country went up by 34 per cent in 2023 compared with 2019, NCRB data shows. In fact, over a decade, the number of student suicides rose by around 65 per cent— from 8,423 in 2013 to 13,892 in 2023. The rise is steeper in this demographic than the 27 per cent rise in the total number of deaths by suicide during the period. Much to the anguish of parents, schools and policymakers, data from multiple agencies also show that the annual growth rate of student suicides in In­dia is roughly double the annual growth rate for overall suicides in the general population. And the figures show signs of rising every passing year. Young Indian women are especially vulner­able, according to data. Suicide rates among them are nearly six times as high as global figures (24.9 versus 4.1 per 100,000), ac­cording to the World Health Organization.

Sneha Manchanda, a maths teacher with a prestigious private school in Delhi, a city that sees high rates of student suicides, notes that she has observed that suicidal tendencies among schoolkids in Delhi—and many cities now—come from a cocktail of reasons. “Social media is a big factor—con­stant comparison, fear of missing out, unrealistic standards, and online bullying affect kids more than we realise. Peer pressure is another strong trigger—wanting to fit in, look a certain way, or achieve what everyone else seems to be achieving,” she notes, adding that sometimes unintentional pressure from parents also makes kids feel they aren’t allowed to make mistakes.

Fear of failure is, in fact, a mindset problem that top-notch MNC executives like Rajeev MA, who is part of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Program at TCS Digital Enterprise, say is a major problem in the world of entrepreneurship in India, too. He has said in an interview to Open that the stigma around fail­ures as opposed to seeing them as a stepping stone to success hurts India’s manufacturing dreams. This IIT Madras alum adds, “Leaders are moulded in the same system and very few are able to come out of it.”

Manchanda, an alumnus of Miranda House, Delhi Univer­sity, says that in some cases, especially privileged urban families, excessive pampering of children by parents is also a reason that triggers suicidal tendencies—especially when it comes to tough moments in life. “Parents saying yes to everything is a problem. When kids get everything too easily, they sometimes struggle to handle disappointment or failure later. Even small setbacks feel very big because they haven’t built emotional resilience.”

But children on the other end of the spectrum are also feeling the pressure. A 2024 ICMR report forecasts a continuance of rising suicide cases for the upcoming decade in India. It emphasises, “A substantially different trend of suicide rate was observed among early and late adolescents indicating significantly high vulner­ability of late adolescents. Among children/adolescents, the most common causes of suicide were family problems, academic fail­ure, illness, and unemployment. Illness has emerged as one of the leading causes of suicide, with a significant rise over time. Poverty and unemployment were also found as the important contribu­tors with a steadily increasing trend of suicide among children and adolescents facing these problems in recent years.” In fact, suicide among the young is a major concern because of the social, economic and political implications of losing able-bodied men and women who offer a country or the world a demographic divi­dend. The majority of suicides occur in low and middle-income countries with India at No 1.

A Chennai-based mother of three who lost one of her daugh­ters to suicide at the age of 14 tells Open that it was a setback she has not managed to come to terms with. “You end up living with it, and the way it affects the family, both nuclear and extended family, is beyond anyone’s comprehension. It also affects the neighbourhood and friends. It is a wound that never heals,” she says.

The problem is set to get worse, warns Dr Rachna Khanna Singh, a mental wellness expert at Artemis Hospital, Gurugram. “As a mental health professional who has worked with adoles­cents for many years, I can say with certainty that the rise in teenage suicides we are witnessing today is unlike anything we have seen before. The NCRB 2023 data reflects a crisis that has been building quietly but steadily,” she says, adding that, according to the World Health Organization, suicide is now the fourth leading cause of death among adolescents aged 15–19, and a young person dies by suicide every 40 seconds. “These are not just statistics to me; they are lives that could have been saved, families that could have been spared heartbreaks.”

She explains, “From the thousands of cases I have seen over the years, one thing is clear: today’s adolescents are carrying pressures that earlier generations never experienced. Academic stress has intensified drastically, something also highlighted in The Hindu (2024), which reports that 45 per cent of Indian teen­agers struggle with chronic academic pressure. In my sessions, teenagers repeatedly express fear of failing, fear of disappoint­ing their parents, and fear of being ‘left behind’ in a highly com­petitive environment. Alongside this, I see a significant rise in untreated anxiety, emotional isolation, and identity confusion. Social media has added a new layer of psychological vulnerabil­ity, constant comparison, cyber-bullying, and the need to present a ‘perfect’ life online. Many teens tell me they feel exhausted trying to maintain this façade.”

ADD TO THIS the communication gaps at home, irregular sleep cycles, screen addiction, and a reluctance to seek help due to stigma, and you have the perfect storm for emotional break­downs, Singh avers. “All of this points to one truth I have witnessed repeatedly: teenagers are not getting the emotional cushioning they desperately need during their most vulnerable years.”

Besides academic pressure, another set of concern that re­peatedly comes up is around identity, Singh points out. “Despite being constantly connected through their phones, many young people tell me they feel ‘emotionally alone’. Social media intensi­fies their insecurities. Feeling misunderstood at home, difficulty navigating friendships, and the uncertainties of early romantic relationships are major crises that they face,” Singh says.

Teenagers don’t lack strength, what they lack are safe spaces, she avers. When provided with that space, they speak with in­credible clarity. “With consistent empathy, validation, and support, I have seen these same teenagers rebuild resilience and regain their sense of self,” she argues.

Sunita Malhotra, a mother of two who lives in Vashi, Navi Mum­bai, agrees. She says that she finds it “obscene” and “repugnant” when older people say that the younger ones lack courage and determina­tion. “Most of them do not realise the challenges the new generation goes through, living in their nuclear families and with their secret fears. Such comparisons must stop.”

Parents, teachers, counsellors and psychiatrists surveyed by Open agree that though the prob­lem is clearly identified, the challenge ahead is to find the most creative ways to help students and other young people tide over the crisis and find their footing.

The loss of a child is deeply devastating because it simply violates the deepest expectations of human life: that children outlive their parents. It reverses the natural order and leaves an unjust void.