IITs & suicides competition, caste among campus fault lines: NTF report

New Delhi: Amid student suicides at IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, focus is back on the National Task Force (NTF) on 'Mental Health of Students and Prevention of Suicides in Higher Educational Institutes', set up by the Supreme Court in March 2025 while hearing a case concerning two student suicides at IIT Delhi in 2023, where police had refused to register an FIR.

The task force will submit its final report by November. However, its 211-page interim report has flagged several concerns simmering on campuses, particularly at IITs and IIMs.

ET takes a look at some of these:

IIT and IIM Dropouts

The NTF, citing data from parliamentary questions, found that over 13,600 students from disadvantaged communities dropped out of premier institutions between 2018 and 2023.

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Between 2018 and 2023, 4,596 OBC, 2,424 SC and 2,622 ST students dropped out of central universities; 2,066 OBC, 1,068 SC and 408 ST students from IITs; and 163 OBC, 188 SC and 91 ST students from IIMs.

This happened despite fee waivers and other government support, including stipends, indicating academic or other forms of stress, the panel noted.

Student-faculty mismatch

The NTF observed that while classrooms today contain a broad cross-section of India's social groups, with approximately 60% of students coming from SC, ST or OBC communities, at the same time 56% of faculty in higher education belong to socially advantaged groups.

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The mismatch is particularly pronounced in elite institutions, with Institutes of National Importance (INIs), like the IITs and NITs, recording only 7.57% SC faculty and 1.91% ST faculty, while 67.71% come from "privileged" backgrounds, it added.

State private universities showed even starker disparities, with only 3.59% SC faculty and 1.68% ST faculty, while close to 67% belong to "privileged" backgrounds.

This social mismatch is likely to result in "low academic integration", which may be directly associated with depression, dropouts and suicide, the report said, citing research papers on the subject.

Competition Culture

The panel's discussions with IIT faculty pointed to a "relentless culture of academic competition" at leading institutes, where success is defined by grades, ranks and placement packages, leading students to "reduce their entire personality into numbers".

While relationship issues were found to be a key stress point for students at some engineering colleges and central universities, at IITs, "unrealistic expectations of being IITians and myths of guaranteed success" added to the stress.

At one central university and an IIT, thesis submission was cited by administrative staff as the second-most stressful point for students.

Caste factor

Faculty members also said that many students enter IITs with unclear academic intentions, often finding themselves stuck with courses they do not want to pursue. In these institutes, faculty members believed that "intense competition was linked to reservation politics", the panel noted.

Amid CGPA cut-offs, "many approach faculty aggressively, demanding higher marks or grade revisions....," the NTF interim report noted, from its discussions with faculty at IITs.

Vibe check

The panel cited reports on how the dominant "campus culture", though not explicitly casteist, often requires students to pass the so-called "vibe check", which students from disadvantaged sections mostly fail, leading to exclusion and isolation.

The NTF's student surveys, with higher representation from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka, as well as from SC, ST and OBC segments, reported that as many as 34% of students felt like an "outsider" on campus. It noted that 15% recalled a period in the previous six months when they felt "very distressed", while 9% reported "suicidal thoughts" often.

The panel pointed to how disabled students and women students are subjected to discrimination.

Finding solutions

The panel noted that IITs have brought in more mental health support services over time. But the absence of "systematic screening mechanisms" or integrated reporting from faculty and hostel staff means that institutions often become aware of crises too late.

IIT faculty is also already overloaded and not adequately equipped or trained to handle mental health concerns, it was pointed out.

IIT-B removes Doolla from post

The IIT-Bombay on Monday removed Suryanarayana Doolla as the dean of Administrative Affairs following protests by students and political activists over the suicide of a 22-year-old student, which led to a case of abetment and caste discrimination registered against him.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay also issued a public apology for its earlier communication that characterised the events preceding the death of the student, Sahil Wakode, before a detailed inquiry was completed.