NEW DELHI: The country’s premier educational institutes the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have reported the highest number of suicides over the past five years. The dropout rate is also the highest in IITs.
Unfortunately, it is the reserved categories that have suffered the most. Of the total 69 suicides at the top four educational institutes, 37 belonged to reserved categories, including 22 from Other Backward Class (OBC).
As per the data provided by Education Ministry in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, IITs alone reported around 31 suicides since 2018.
The National Institute of Technology (NIT) reported 22 suicides in the same period while the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) reported 13 suicides.
As many as 8,319 students have dropped out from the IITs over the past five years. After IITs, NITs reported the maximum dropouts of students since 2018. The data shows that 5,623 students didn’t complete their degrees at NITs.
Subhas Sarkar, Minister of State for Education, said, “The maximum number of dropouts are in postgraduate and PhD programmes. The main reasons thereof are the offers of placement in public sector enterprises and personal preference for better opportunities elsewhere.”