SC, ST and OBC students account for 62% of IIT suicides in five years

Students from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities accounted for more than 62% of all reported student suicides across the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) over five years, according to official data.

As many as 28 of the 45 students who died by suicide across 23 IITs between 2020-21 and 2024-25 belonged to SC, ST or OBC communities, highlighting the scale of student deaths involving reserved-category students at the country’s premier engineering institutions.

The data shows that 12 victims were from the OBC community, nine were SC students and seven were from the ST community. Together, they accounted for 28 of the 45 reported suicides during the period.

The figures were compiled from data obtained from all IITs in connection with a provisionally admitted Lok Sabha starred question, Diary No. 3682, dated December 8, 2025.

The remaining victims included 16 students from the General category and one from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category.

Sharp rise in student suicides

The data also points to a marked increase in reported suicides in the later years of the period under review.

IITs reported six student suicides in 2022-23, but the figure rose sharply to 16 in 2023-24. A further 13 suicides were reported in 2024-25.

The latest year also saw a substantial representation of reserved-category students among those who died. Of the 13 students who died by suicide in 2024-25, four were from the OBC category, three from ST and two from SC communities. The remaining four belonged to the General category.

IIT Hyderabad records highest number

Among individual institutions, IIT Hyderabad reported the highest number of student suicides during the five-year period, with seven deaths.

IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur reported six suicides each, while IIT Madras recorded five and IIT (BHU)-Varanasi four.

The figures cover 23 IITs and provide a broad picture of student deaths across the premier engineering institutions during the five-year period.

Data raises questions but does not establish causes

The official compilation, however, does not provide the course-wise details of the students who died, nor the circumstances or causes behind individual deaths.

As a result, the figures alone cannot establish whether academic pressure, social or institutional factors, financial circumstances, discrimination or any other factor contributed to the deaths. The data also does not establish a causal link between a student's caste category and their death.

That limitation is particularly important while examining the disproportionately high representation of SC, ST and OBC students in the suicide figures.

The compilation separately records eight unnatural deaths across the IITs during the five-year period. These cases are not included in the 45 suicides.

The data was prepared in connection with the Lok Sabha Provisionally Admitted Starred Diary No. 3682 dated December 8, 2025.