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The IIT tag carries enormous weight in India. For students, it often represents years of preparation, intense competition and the promise of a career at one of the country's premier institutions.
But behind that reputation is another number that deserves sustained attention.
A total of 171 student suicides and unnatural deaths have been recorded across IIT campuses between January 2006 and September 2026, according to a compilation based on RTI responses and media reports. The data was compiled by IIT Kanpur alumnus Dheeraj Singh, who is also the Founder of the Global IIT Alumni Support Group.
The two infographics below maps the deaths across individual IITs across two decades, and tracks how the numbers changed year by year.
The 20-year period is not evenly divided. Between 2006 and 2015, the compilation records 51 student suicides and unnatural deaths. Between 2016 and September 2026, that figure rises to 120.
The year-wise data shows several spikes. There were 13 student suicides in 2014, followed by 11 in 2018 and 12 in 2019.
The numbers rose again in the 2020s, reaching 14 deaths each in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The highest annual figure in the compilation was 16 in 2025. By September 18 this year, 13 student suicides had already been recorded.
That does not establish a single cause behind these deaths. Individual cases can involve very different personal, academic, financial, social or mental health circumstances.
It does, however, show how persistent the issue of student suicides has been across the IIT system.
The campus-wise breakdown shows that the deaths are spread across multiple generations of IITs.
IIT Kharagpur records the highest number of student suicides and unnatural deaths at 29, followed by IIT Madras with 26 and IIT Kanpur with 21.
IIT Delhi records 17 student suicides, while IIT Bombay and IIT Guwahati record 14 each. IIT Hyderabad has nine, followed by IIT Roorkee with eight and IIT Patna with seven.
The remaining deaths are distributed across several other IITs, including BHU Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, IIT-ISM Dhanbad, Gandhinagar, Ropar, Mandi, Jodhpur, Tirupati, Dharwad, Goa and Indore.
Newer IITs like Jammu, Bhilai and Palakkad have recorded no student suicides.
The 171 figure is a compilation combining information obtained through RTIs with cases reported by the media, and the classification of deaths can vary between records.
The number doesnโt explain why individual students died. But it does reveal a stark shift in the scale of deaths across the two halves of the 20-year period.
From 2006 to 2015, the compilation records 51 student suicides and unnatural deaths across IITs. From 2016 to September 2026, that number more than doubles to 120.
In other words, while the first decade accounts for less than a third of the total, the following 10 years and nine months account for roughly 70 per cent of all 171 deaths recorded.
The more recent data makes the trend harder to overlook.
A separate compilation for September 2021 to September 2026 records 74 IIT student suicides and unnatural deaths, based on Dheeraj Singhโs RTI responses and media reports.
The year-wise numbers remain elevated throughout this period. There were three deaths in the final four months of 2021, followed by 14 each in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The figure rose to 16 in 2025, while 13 deaths had already been recorded by September 18, 2026.
| Year | IIT students' suicides/unnatural deaths |
|---|---|
| 2021 (*SepโDec only) | 3 |
| 2022 | 14 |
| 2023 | 14 |
| 2024 | 14 |
| 2025 | 16 |
| 2026 (*till 18 Sep only) | 13 |
| Total | 74 |
The campus-wise picture is similarly spread out. IIT Kharagpur records 13 deaths during this period, followed by IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi with nine each. IIT Madras records seven, while IIT Guwahati and IIT Bombay record six each.
| IIT campus | Suicides/unnatural deaths |
|---|---|
| IIT-Kharagpur | 13 |
| IIT-Kanpur | 9 |
| IIT-Delhi | 9 |
| IIT-Madras | 7 |
| IIT-Guwahati | 6 |
| IIT-Bombay | 6 |
| IIT-BHU Varanasi | 5 |
| IIT-Roorkee | 4 |
| IIT-Hyderabad | 4 |
| IIT-Patna | 3 |
| IIT-ISM Dhanbad | 3 |
| IIT-Bhubaneswar | 2 |
| IIT-Goa | 1 |
| IIT-Ropar | 1 |
| IIT-Indore | 1 |
| Total | 74 |
The sustained high numbers in recent years may indicate a deterioration in student mental health in the IITs. The data also raises questions about whether existing mental health and wellness systems are preventing distress from escalating, particularly in the post-Covid period.
The data alone cannot explain why these students died or measure the mental health of the wider IIT population. But 74 student deaths in just five years, including 16 in 2025 and 13 already in 2026, make the recent pattern difficult to dismiss as a series of isolated incidents. For IITs, that pattern warrants a closer look at what happens when students begin to struggle, and whether support reaches them in time.
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