IIT Bombay student death case raises suicide, casteism questions at premier institutes again

At India’s premier engineering institutes, the numbers are moving in the wrong direction. Student deaths across the IITs have increased nearly fourfold in just five years — from five in 2020-21 to 19 in 2024-25. And more than half of the 53 students who died during this period were from SC, ST and OBC communities. Now, IIT Bombay is once again at the centre of the debate after a second-year BTech student died by suicide on September 18, triggering protests, allegations of caste discrimination and demands for accountability. Hindustan Times Principal Correspondent Sanjay Maurya sheds light on the concerning issue in this report.