Over 8,000 students committed suicide in 2014, maximum in Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: Over 8,000 students committed suicides during 2014 in the country with the highest number of such cases being reported from Maharashtra.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha to a question on stress level in students, Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani said, of the 8,068 cases of student suicides in 2014, 7,753 happened in states while 315 were reported from Union Territories.

The highest number of cases of suicide by students (1191) was reported from Maharashtra in 2014, followed by Tamil Nadu with 853 cases and West Bengal with 709 cases of student suicides.

In 2013, as per the data shared by the minister there were 8423 cases of suicides committed by the students. The highest number was again reported from Maharashtra where 1141 such cases were reported.

In 2012, the number of such cases in the country excluding West Bengal, for which data was not available, was 6654.

In her reply, the minister also mentioned several steps that the Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE) had taken to deal with stress related to examinations.

Among them she mentioned that there is no class X Board examination from 2011 for students of CBSE schools who do not wish to move out of the CBSE system.