At least 53 students died across India's Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) between 2020-21 and 2024-25, including 45 suicides and eight other unnatural deaths, according to official data submitted by the 23 IITs to the Union education ministry.
Students from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) accounted for 29 of the deaths, or 54.7% of the total. The figures are broadly in line with the intake of students from these groups at the government-owned institutions.
The data was compiled from responses provided by IITs to the Department of Higher Education (DoHE) following a request for information linked to a Lok Sabha question raised by Congress MP KC Venugopal. The responses were received by the ministry but were not tabled in Parliament.
Deaths rose sharply in the last two years
The IITs reported five student deaths in 2020-21, six each in 2021-22 and 2022-23, followed by a sharp increase to 17 in 2023-24 and 19 in 2024-25.
Suicides made up 84.9% of all 53 deaths. The latest year also recorded the highest number of deaths classified as unnatural, with six of the 19 deaths in 2024-25 falling into that category.
General category students accounted for 23 deaths, or 43.4% of the total. OBC students accounted for 12 deaths, SC students for 10, ST students for seven and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students for one.
The nature of the deaths differed across categories. Seven of the 23 deaths among general category students were classified as unnatural. All 12 OBC deaths, all seven ST deaths and the single EWS death were reported as suicides. Nine of the 10 SC deaths were suicides.
General category deaths increased from none in 2020-21 to four in 2021-22, three in 2022-23, seven in 2023-24 and nine in 2024-25.
Deaths among OBC, SC and ST students also increased substantially from 2023-24. Their combined death count was five in 2020-21, two in 2021-22 and three in 2022-23, before rising to nine in 2023-24 and 10 in 2024-25.
Kharagpur, Delhi and Hyderabad report most deaths
IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Hyderabad recorded seven deaths each during the five-year period. IIT Kanpur and IIT (BHU) Varanasi reported six each, while IIT Madras recorded five.
Looking specifically at suicides, IIT Hyderabad recorded seven, the highest among the institutes. IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur followed with six each.
IIT (BHU) Varanasi and IIT Patna recorded the highest number of unnatural deaths, with two each.
The category-wise distribution also showed concentrations at particular campuses. Thirteen of the 23 general category deaths were reported from IIT Kharagpur, IIT (BHU) Varanasi and IIT Delhi.
Seven of the 12 OBC deaths occurred at IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi and IIT Madras, while six of the 10 SC deaths were recorded at IIT Hyderabad and IIT Delhi.
The figures were sought after DoHE under secretary Nilesh Chandra Srivastava wrote to the IITs on December 1, 2025. The communication related to a provisionally admitted Lok Sabha Starred Question, Diary No. 3682, scheduled for December 8, 2025.
Venugopal's question was titled "Enrolment in Post-Graduate and Ph.D. Programmes" on the Lok Sabha website and contained five parts. The first two sought information on postgraduate and doctoral enrolment, including whether enrolment and completion rates among SC, ST and OBC students had declined.
The remaining three parts dealt with complaints of caste-based discrimination, student suicides and unnatural deaths, and implementation of the UGC (Promotion of Equity) Regulations, 2012. Unlike the first two parts, these questions did not specifically limit the information to postgraduate and Ph.D. students.
Earlier data and wider estimates point to continuing concern
The Union education ministry had told Parliament in July 2023 that 39 students had died by suicide across IITs during the five years from 2018 to 2023.
A separate dataset compiled by IIT Kanpur alumnus Dheeraj Singh using RTI responses and media reports has recorded 171 IIT student deaths by suicide or other unnatural causes between January 2006 and September 2026. The compilation recorded 120 deaths between 2016 and September 2026, compared with 51 during the preceding decade. Singh has cautioned that the dataset may not capture every death because it relies on RTI responses and media reports.
The issue has also remained the subject of parliamentary questions and RTI requests. In August 2026, the Union education ministry said the National Crime Records Bureau collects suicide data from cases recorded by police and publishes annual Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India reports. The ministry said the government was taking a multi-pronged approach to suicide prevention, including psychological support for students, teachers and families.
Official IIT responses to an earlier 2024 parliamentary question also show that campuses have adopted measures including counselling centres, additional counsellors, suicide-prevention training, 24-hour support services and mechanisms to monitor students considered at risk. IIT Kharagpur, for instance, reported having 10 counsellors and two psychiatrists at the time.
Academics and faculty members, however, have argued that counselling alone cannot address the problem. They have pointed to academic pressure, social isolation, limited faculty-student interaction and job-related anxiety, along with structural issues surrounding inclusion.
Prof V Ramgopal Rao, vice chancellor of BITS Pilani and former director of IIT Delhi, said students now come from more diverse backgrounds and face pressures including relative grading, isolation, limited interaction with faculty and uncertainty over employment.
"Students today come from far more diverse backgrounds and face academic pressure, relative grading, isolation, limited faculty interaction and job-related anxiety. IITs need to move from crisis management to prevention, with wellbeing integrated into campus life and stronger faculty-student engagement," Rao said.
According to the official data, the 23 IIT campuses had 108 counsellors as of December 1, 2025.