Rising student suicides put focus on India's mental health debate

From 'coaching capital' Kota in Rajasthan to industrialised Maharashtra, young people are battling stress

The death of Prakriti Lamsal, a Nepalese student who died by suicide at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar, has stoked a diplomatic row and made mental health a talking point.

 

In just two months of 2025, six young people have died by suicide in Kota, the “coaching capital” where thousands prepare for annual entrance exams to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other premier colleges. Kota recorded 26 student suicides in 2023 and 17 in 2024, while 37 students died by suicide between 2019-20 and 2023-24 across 11 out of the 23 sought-after IITs, according to media reports. 

 

As many as 135,445 suicide cases were recorded in 2012 and 170,924 in 2022, worsening by 26.19 per cent in the ten years.

 

Student suicides in India rose by 96.03 per cent from 2012 to 2022, according to the ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’ reports by the National Crime Records Bureau. The spurt is nearly four times the growth rate in total suicides in the country. The share of student suicides in all suicides in India increased from 4.91 per cent in 2012 to 8.18 per cent in 2020, before coming down marginally to 7.63 per cent in 2022.

 

Kota is infamous but it is Maharashtra that had the highest number of student suicide cases in the country in 2022. It recorded 1,764 cases in 2022, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,406) and Madhya Pradesh (1,340). Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand saw a surge in student suicides with 1,060 and 824 cases in 2022, respectively. 

 

The Economic Survey for 2024-25 talked about the mental health of children and adolescents, linking it to internet overuse and social media. As Indian society recognises the importance of mental well-being, it should address the stress its young people face.