High number of on-campus deaths
Singh’s compilation indicates that about 82 per cent of suicides took place on IIT campuses. He said the concentration of deaths on campuses warrants closer examination of factors linked to the campus environment.
The data also suggests a link between the timing of deaths and the academic calendar. Student deaths were reported more frequently around examinations and the announcement of results, while the numbers declined during semester breaks, according to Singh’s analysis.
About 70 per cent of suicide cases in the dataset involved hanging, the analysis found.
The latest IIT Bombay case has brought renewed attention to academic and institutional pressures faced by students. The 22-year-old student, Sahil Ravindra Wakode, was allegedly caught using a mobile phone during an examination on September 18. IIT Bombay said he had allegedly uploaded the examination paper to ChatGPT to seek answers, but no disciplinary action had been initiated against him, and he had been counselled by the instructor and head of department.
BTech men, women PhD students account for more deaths
Singh’s analysis also identifies differences across student groups. Male BTech students and women pursuing PhD programmes together accounted for around 60 per cent of suicides recorded over the 20 years, according to the HT report.
It points to differences across social categories as well. Singh estimates that the suicide death rate among SC and ST students was about twice that of students from the general category during the period.
His analysis also found that SC and ST students who died by suicide were, on average, younger than students from the general and OBC categories.
The estimated rates rose further after the Covid-19 pandemic. Singh’s calculations put the suicide death rate among SC students at about 2.6 times the pre-pandemic level and the rate among ST students at about 4.2 times the earlier level.
Singh said he used a methodology based on the World Health Organization’s approach to calculating suicide death rates. However, the dataset has limitations because it combines RTI responses with information reported in the media.
He has cautioned that the compilation may not have captured every death across the IIT system. The 171 figure should therefore be read as the number of deaths identified through the sources used for the compilation, rather than as an official IIT-wide count.
