Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi is sounding the alarm on a rising student suicide crisis following another death at IIT Delhi. The recent loss of a 31-year-old MSc Physics student on August 22 triggered student-led protests demanding independent investigations and institutional accountability. Campus records show eight students have died by suicide at IIT Delhi over the last 30 months, including two students from the Scheduled Caste community.
Gogoi pointed to National Crime Records Bureau data showing 14,488 student suicides across India in 2024. Exam failures alone account for 2,032 of those cases. The Supreme Court has labeled the trend a suicide epidemic, citing a toxic mix of academic pressure, caste discrimination, financial hardship, sexual harassment, and ragging as primary drivers.
A Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force warned these deaths are merely the tip of the iceberg. The group criticized universities for framing suicides as individual failures instead of fixing structural campus rot. Existing safety regulations and government strategies lack teeth. Gogoi insists current measures are too generic and reactive to save lives.
Reflecting on the stalled progress, the MP stated, "Even after years of reports, UGC regulations, government strategies, and SC guidelines, we continue to lose our students." Gogoi is now demanding that authorities look beyond individual blame to address the systemic gaps currently failing the student population.
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