RTI Series | Seven Student Suicides In Five Years At IIT-Delhi: 'No Closure Report', Says Institute

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Pragati Ratti

Last Updated:March 26, 2025, 16:42 IST

The Supreme Court had on Monday (March 24, 2025) set up a taskforce to look into the students’ mental health concerns on campuses and pulled up the Delhi Police for not filing a case in the alleged suicides of two IIT-Delhi students in 2023.

The response received from IIT-Delhi on March 24, to an RTI query filed by News 18 this January, into suicides at the top-ranking IITs, said, that between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2024, seven deaths took place on its campus. (File Photo)

Almost two years since Ayush Ashna and Anil Kumar, BTech students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, allegedly died by suicide on campus, the institute said it does not have a closure report with it as to “whether these were suicides or not", in any of these cases that took place on its campus since 2019, as per a response received to an RTI query into student suicides at IITs by News18.

The deaths and the reforms

While Ayush was found dead in his hostel room on July 8, 2023, Anil was found dead on September 1, 2023, also in his hostel room at IIT-Delhi. Both the students were from the 2019 batch of BTech in Maths and Computing, which saw two years of the pandemic disrupting their initial years of college life. In addition, both of them belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. In both cases, the parents alleged that the students had earlier confided in them of facing caste-based discrimination. However, the institute had denied the allegations.

News18 had on September 14, 2023, reported that both Ayush and Anil were on extended degrees – a six months extension given to complete degrees to students who are not able to complete their credits in due time. According to students from the batch, at least 70-80 students from the math and computing department were on extension degrees every year, which they said was an extremely high number, as compared to other departments where such cases are much less. In case of both student suicides, not being able to complete their degrees and being left behind while others graduated was the common factor cited by students and faculty members.

In addition, after the second incident, students protesting the suicides demanded reforms such as academic moderation and a more stress-free environment in an open house held for undergraduate students addressed by the institute’s director Prof Rangan Banerjee on September 3.

Following these incidents, IIT-Delhi introduced several academic reforms such as constituting an Academic Progress Group for helping those struggling to complete their degrees in time as well as reducing the overall Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) criterion and reviewing its termination policy. In “exceptional cases", the institute now also allows students to stay with a family member on campus. For this purpose, hostel rooms have been reserved for those on extended degrees (beyond the regular semester duration) to help them complete their degrees.

Seven suicides over past five years

The response received from IIT-Delhi on March 24, to an RTI query filed by News18 this January, into suicides at the top-ranking IITs, said, that between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2024, seven deaths took place on its campus – of which, two each were in 2024, 2023 and 2021 while one such incident took place in 2019, respectively. However, in 2022, no such incident was reported from the campus. While six of the students were males, only one was a female.

“The closure report, whether it was a suicide or not, are not available with us and may be obtained directly from Delhi Police," the RTI reply received from IIT-Delhi stated.

According to the response, four of these students belonged to the reserved categories while three were from general category. Of two students who died in 2024, one each belonged to general and Other Backward Category (OBC), respectively. In 2023, both students were from Scheduled Caste (SC) category. In 2021 also, of the two students who died, one each belonged to general and OBC categories, respectively.

When asked about the reasons behind the alleged suicides as stated in any internal investigation report prepared by the institute, it said, “The requisite information is not available with us. The same may be found from the probing agency."

The institute did not share any internal investigation carried out by its own administration into the student deaths.

Rise in mental health concerns post-pandemic

According to the RTI response, 12,289 students on campus sought mental health counselling between January 2020 and January 2025. Of these, 9,776 students availed the in-house counselling services on campus while 2,513 sought help from the online counselling platform Your Dost, facilitated by the institute for students.

While 2,701 students availed the in-house counselling services in 2024-25, this figure was 2,276 in 2023-24, 2,630 in 2022-23, 1,474 in 2021-22 and 695 in 2020-21, as per data shared in the RTI response.

The institute stated adjustment issues, family and peer pressure, interpersonal relationship issues, and issues with managing time between academics and social life – as the most common reasons for students seeking mental health counselling. Currently, it has 10 counsellors available 24X7, five each for in-house services and outsourced counsellors (Disha Kiran), as well as an online counselling platform (YourDost).

“Our students can avail counselling services from in-house counsellors on campus as well as from YourDost (an external agency). We do not maintain count of calls. Only the count of individual cases is recorded," it stated.

According to the institute’s response, it has taken a slew of measures to help address mental health concerns of students. This includes guiding freshers, those joining undergraduate (UG) programmes, by a proctorial team of around 10 faculty members in each hostel, who students can approach any time of the day or night, over and above the institute’s regular counselling services.

“Additionally, there is a fresher’s course with objectives to understand the concept of right and wrong, happiness, success, competition versus cooperation, parental expectations, respecting diversity in society, judicious use of environmental resources, and gender sensitisation," the response stated.

IIT-Delhi, it further stated, also has a National Resource Centre for Value Education in Engineering (NRCVEE), which has more than 30 faculty members to impart value-based education to improve overall mental and physical health.

Besides, it said, a digital wellness course has been introduced for students to help them understand professional ethics and social responsibility. There is also weekly ‘i-meditate session’ for those students, faculty and staff members interested and open to learning and practicing meditation as a tool for better mental and physical health.

To deal with emergencies related to student wellness or mental health, the Office of Dean Student Affairs, has at least one faculty member and one counsellor available 24×7. Normally, the response time is within 15-30 minutes for any emergency at any time.

“Outreach to, and collaboration with, parents of students identified with serious mental health challenges requiring assistance from family is done. We inform them timely in this reference for immediate action/support," it stated.

The institute in its response said that besides the already established measures, it has on agenda several plans to address mental health concerns even better. “While a psychiatrist is available in IIT-Delhi hospital for students to avail of any kind of psychiatric support, we are also exploring the possibility of having a permanent psychiatrist available at our hospital. Students who are uncomfortable in availing counselling services within campus are given appointments through our centre to listed hospitals for accessing psychiatric and psychological help and support with the first session being reimbursed for the students," it stated.