AHMEDABAD: A 23-year-old student of the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad, died by suicide due to study-related stress.
This is not the first incident, according to the NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report, In Gujarat, 3,002 students died by suicide in the last five years.
According to the data, seven medical students died by suicide in 2022 alone, indicating a dire scenario.
Three students of Gujarat from prestigious institutions died by suicide in 2020, 2021, and 2023.
Another student from Gujarat, Darshan Solanki recently committed suicide at IIT-Bombay.
Shiv Mahendrabhai Mistry (23), a final semester architecture student at CEPT University, stayed in a PG and is a native of Vadodara. According to the case, Shiv wrote four suicide notes, one for each of his parents, brother, girlfriend, and close friend. The overarching message was that he was unable to meet his parents’ expectations and was not pursuing his life goals.
Be it caste discrimination, province discrimination, inequality, study load, fear of failure, illness, loneliness, love, institutional environment, poverty, or increased unemployment, in the last five years, over 3,000 students in Gujarat have died by suicide, many with stories similar to Shiv.
Gujarat has risen to sixth place in India in terms of student suicides. In light of data, up to 3,002 students in Gujarat have committed suicide in the previous five years, approximately 1-2 youths every day.
In India, there are 35 student suicides every day, or 1-2 students per hour. According to data, 638 students died by suicide in 2017, 570 in 2018, 575 in 2019, 597 in 2020, and 622 in 2021.
Data also indicates that premier institutions like IIT/IIM/NITs/AIIMS and central universities report that 103 students have already committed suicide in India between 2018 and 2023. 35 of those are in IITs, 29 are at central universities, 24 are at NITs, 11 are at AIIMS, and 4 are at IIMs. 56,013 students have died by suicide in the past five years, including 30488 male and 25,525 female students.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “ Recently, PM Modi made a joke on suicide, but he may not have seen the statistics of students dying by suicide in his own state, there has been a 32% increase in student suicides in the country’s educational institutions in five years. Students account for more than one-third of all suicides.”
In the past five years, the number of suicides in the country has grown by 26%. In Gujarat alone, 7 medical students died by suicide in 2022.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. In case you feel distressed by the content or know someone in distress, call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050 (available 24x7)