 "The alarming rise of student suicides: India's elite institutions hide a deadly secret")
National Law University (NLU) Delhi, one of the country’s premier law institutions, has witnessed three suicides in the past three months alone. These incidents shine a harsh light on the toxic combination of academic stress, societal expectations, and inadequate mental health support that plagues students in elite institutions across the length and breadth of India. The allure of prestigious institutions often presents an idealised image of success, wherein students are perceived as the elite, expected to excel in hyper-competitive settings.
However, this comes at a considerable cost. As they navigate the labyrinthine structure of rigorous coursework, demanding faculty, and relentless competition, they may quickly discover that the support systems designed to assist them often fall lamentably short.
According to a report, the incidence of student suicides in India has escalated at a concerning annual rate exceeding both the population growth rate and overall suicide trends. While overall suicide rates have seen a 2 per cent surge, student suicides have gone up by 4 per cent. The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) report suggests that these numbers have increased from 6,654 to 13,044 in the last decade. These tragedies reveal a toxic environment characterised by overwhelming academic demands and disillusionment among young scholars embarking on their careers.
One of the most pressing concerns is the glaring failure of institutional support systems. Every year, millions of students from all shades of socio-economic background leave their hometowns to settle in challenging cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kota, and Hyderabad, where they must recalibrate their lives, learning new tactics while unlearning old ones, all during the fragile transition from school to college.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn a country like India, this transition demands proactive institutional setups to provide the necessary support systems that can ease this period of immense change since students have to juggle many balls besides studyload. Many universities tout counselling services and buddy systems as ways to help students cope, but in reality, these mechanisms are either under-resourced or not taken seriously.
Faculty members remain largely unapproachable, and the power distance between professors and students creates a barrier that prevents students from seeking help. The lack of a dedicated, approachable counselling cell and the defunct buddy systems leave students with nowhere to turn during times of crisis. As a result, the very structures designed to support students fail to help them when they are most needed.
It’s crucial to recognise that students today don’t have it easy. The moment they finish high school, they are thrust into a hyper-competitive race to secure a place in India’s top colleges, where millions are vying for just a handful of seats. Once inside these elite institutions, the race doesn’t stop—it only intensifies. The academic culture promotes an all-or-nothing mentality, often disincentivising a healthy work-life balance.
Extracurricular activities, which could offer an outlet for stress relief and personal growth, are frequently sidelined in favour of a monochromatic focus on academics. Timetables are packed with back-to-back classes, assignments, and evaluations, leaving little room for anything beyond academics. In such an environment, students are often guilt-tripped for not working harder, not putting in more hours, or not meeting the impossible standards set before them. This relentless pressure fosters an atmosphere of despair and frustration.
A fundamental flaw with our education system is the way education and degrees are framed as a means to an end—a fast track to career success, financial freedom, or social prestige—rather than as a pursuit of knowledge or a passion for the field. This transactional mindset permeates all levels of academic life, from students to parents to educators, fostering an environment where intrinsic motivation is sidelined.
For students entering institutions like NLUs, IITs, IIMs, or other premier colleges, the pressure to meet these external expectations is immense. They aren’t just competing for grades; they’re competing for their future, their worth in society, and sometimes, even their parents’ dreams. In the rush to secure prestigious internships, high-paying jobs, or a name in social circles, the love for learning often becomes secondary. In the process, the joy of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and exploration is stifled.
This mindset creates a dangerous feedback loop where failure, instead of being treated as a learning experience, is seen as a devastating blow to one’s self-worth. The result? A brittle psyche, unable to cope with setbacks and prone to burnout. Students are left with a crushing fear of failure—whether it’s missing out on campus placements, not securing top marks, or not meeting family expectations. Instead of cultivating resilience, our system reinforces fragility.
One cannot discuss the pressures faced by students without acknowledging the role of the burgeoning coaching industry, particularly in hubs like Kota or Mukherjee Nagar, which have become synonymous with entrance exam preparation. Kota and similar cities across India operate a parallel economy built on the fear and insecurities of students and parents alike. The promise is simple: a seat at a prestigious institution or a civil examination in exchange for relentless hours of study, all orchestrated in a high-pressure environment that often replicates the very stress students will face in college but magnified.
This system, which churns out millions of aspirants each year, thrives on capitalising on the anxiety and uncertainty that students feel about their future. The coaching centres offer a seductive solution: sacrifice everything—your free time, hobbies, mental well-being—and in return, you might just secure a coveted spot at an IIT, NLU, or medical college. But the cost is often much higher than just the tuition fees. Police records show that 26 students took their own lives in Kota in 2023, 15 in Kota in 2022, with previous years reporting 18 deaths in 2019, 20 in 2018, seven in 2017, 17 in 2016, and 18 in 2015. What is worth nothing is that no suicides were reported in 2020 and 2021, as coaching centres were either closed or operated online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While these institutions market themselves as enablers of success, what they often fail to acknowledge is the psychological toll they take. The consequence is a vicious cycle of fear, self-doubt, and burnout, which not only drains students emotionally but also creates a culture where failure is seen as catastrophic. In the absence of robust support systems in universities, students who come from these coaching ecosystems are often left with few resources to cope with the stress they encounter. The coaching industry, which should serve as a preparatory step, becomes an exacerbating force in the larger crisis of student mental health in India.
This unregulated, profit-driven industry needs to be called out for its role in perpetuating a toxic cycle—one that commodifies education, preys on student vulnerability, and leaves many disillusioned before their academic journey even begins.
The crisis of student suicides in India is not rooted in a singular cause but rather a multitude of deeply interconnected issues that span across societal expectations, institutional shortcomings, and the flawed perception of the purpose of education itself. Addressing this problem requires a holistic approach involving comprehensive policy reforms, a transformation in societal attitudes, and meaningful changes in the education system.
The rising number of student suicides is not merely a statistic—it is a wake-up call. The tragic deaths of young, brilliant minds are symptomatic of a broader societal failure—a failure to recognise that students are not machines, and their value cannot be measured solely by their academic output. The stark reality is that institutions, parents, and society at large must take urgent, collective action. A dedicated, well-resourced counselling system is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.
Moreover, degrees should not be looked at as mere commodities—tools for social mobility and financial stability—rather an opportunity to explore a passion or to seek knowledge. A comprehensive mental health framework in educational institutions, societal reforms to break the narrow career success narrative, and pedagogical changes that cultivate intellectual engagement rather than mere credentialism are the needs of the hour. We must dismantle the frenzy surrounding particular fields and careers and foster an environment where students pursue their passions with genuine curiosity, free from the crushing weight of expectations. Only then can we begin to mitigate the crisis plaguing our educational landscape.
The author is a research assistant at the Department of Public and International Affairs in City University of Hong Kong (CityU). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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