NEW DELHI: The latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) presents a grim picture of the mental make-up of the student community. Despite government-led concerted efforts at the national and state level to address their mental well-being, a high figure of 8.48% of the overall suicides reported in the country are from the student community. This marks a clear increase during the last decade.
“The Accident Deaths and Suicides 2024” report made public on May 7 revealed that 14,488 students have taken their lives across campuses. They form a significant portion of the 1,70,746 suicides reported across India.
Data compared in 2014 reveals that the suicides stood at 8,068, which was 6.1% of the overall suicide figures that year. Past data reveal an average of at least 13,000 students took the extreme step. In 2021, it was 13,089 deaths, in 2022, the number stood at 13,044, while in 2023, it was 13,892.
While the individual break-up of states could not be obtained from this specific report released this week, data assessed by The IC3 Institute, a non-profit that helps schools across the world set up professional counselling departments, revealed in its report ‘The Student Suicides: An Epidemic Sweeping India’ in August 2024 that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh are identified as the states with the highest number of student suicides, together accounting for one-third of the national suicide numbers. The Southern States and the Union Territories generally contribute to one-third of the suicides in the country, past data reveals.
Former Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education, Professor N V Varghese, told this newspaper, “There are three major reasons for student suicides. Students do not feel inclined or feel they have it in them to clear competitive exams like NEET or JEE, but parents goad them to do it.
Unable to meet the burden of expectations, they feel very stressed, forcing them to take the extreme steps. The recurring suicides in Kota, where coaching centres for such institutes mushroom, is a case in point,” he said.
Additionally, the “humiliation” meted out to Socially Disadvantaged Group (SDG) students by the rest also creates enormous emotional stress for them, the educationist said.
“If you look at the recent suicide by a student in Kerala, the student was humiliated enormously by the administration, forcing him to take his life.” Another reason is the peer pressure they face to live up to the lifestyle of students who are financially better off, Varghese added.
The upward trend in suicides has happened despite huge efforts undertaken by the government to redress it.
The Supreme Court-appointed National Test Force had in August 2025 launched a dedicated portal to address mental health concerns. The National Suicide Prevention Strategy was launched in 2022 to bring down suicide mortality by 10 per cent across the country.
The Education Ministry launched initiatives like Manodarpan and a toll-free helpline 14416 under the Tele-Manas programme to boost student mental health. The National Mental Health Policy 2014 and the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 are notable legal provisions. Following a spate of suicides at IITs in the past few months, a panel was set up to identify the causes and put an end to their recurrence.