IIT Roorkee Student Suicide: 20-Year-Old’s Death Raises Questions Over Campus Mental Health Support

A 20-year-old undergraduate student died by suicide at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee on Thursday night, November 12, nine months after the institute began drafting a comprehensive mental health policy. The death comes amid wider concerns over student suicides at IITs, with data submitted by the IITs to the Ministry of Education recording 45 student suicides across 23 institutes between 2020-21 and 2024-25.

The student, a second-year undergraduate enrolled in the BS-MS programme, was from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Police said he had been receiving treatment for depression and visiting the institute’s Wellness Centre for more than a year. A suicide note was recovered from his room, according to the police, who said it referred to depression but did not blame anyone. The circumstances surrounding his death are being investigated.

The death has renewed scrutiny of the mental health support available at IIT Roorkee. In 2024, the institute reported having 11 professional counsellors and round-the-clock mental health support. In February 2026, it announced that it had prepared the first draft of a comprehensive mental health policy.

IIT Roorkee Student Dies By Suicide, Police Recover Note

According to Hindustan Times, the student was last seen by friends at around 3 pm on Thursday. When one of them checked on him at around 11 pm and received no response, the police were informed. Officers reached the campus around midnight.

Roorkee police station SHO Pradeep Singh Bisht told Hindustan Times that the student had been undergoing treatment for depression and had been visiting the institute’s Wellness Centre for over a year. Police recovered a suicide note, which, according to the SHO, referred to depression and did not hold anyone responsible.

“Prima facie, it appears to be a case of suicide,” Bisht said. He said there were no external injuries or signs of a struggle, and that a post-mortem examination would be conducted. The student’s parents were informed and reached the campus.

IIT Roorkee Began Drafting Mental Health Policy In February 2026

On February 15, 2026, the Ministry of Education announced that IIT Roorkee had initiated the process of preparing a comprehensive mental health policy. The first draft was prepared by the institute’s Wellness Centre, with contributions from the Dean of Student Welfare, the Associate Dean of Student Wellness, clinical psychologists, faculty members and external advisers.

The initiative was also taken forward through SAHYOG 2.0, an inter-IIT discussion intended to gather inputs on mental health support. The Ministry described the exercise as an effort to develop a comprehensive framework for student mental health.

However, the February announcement confirmed that a draft had been prepared; it did not establish that the policy had been formally adopted or implemented. The publicly available information cited in the announcement also does not provide details of its subsequent implementation or an assessment of its impact.

The institute had reported an existing support system before the policy-drafting exercise. In its response to a Lok Sabha question scheduled to be answered on November 25, 2024, IIT Roorkee reported having 11 professional counsellors and providing round-the-clock mental health support through on-call services and Psychological First Aid. It also listed online counselling through YourDost, Wellness Wardens or Assistant Wellness Secretaries in hostels, and counsellors stationed in hostels during examination periods. The institute said emergency assistance was available around the clock, with a typical response time of 15–30 minutes.

The same response recorded one student suicide at IIT Roorkee in the preceding five years. The institute said the student was a third-year BTech student in the BSBE programme.

The disclosures show that IIT Roorkee had counselling and other support services before it began drafting the comprehensive policy. However, the 2024 figures do not establish whether the same number of counsellors and services remain in place, how frequently students use them, or how the institute assesses their effectiveness. The current status of the policy and the institute's response to the latest death remain unanswered questions.

45 Student Suicides Recorded Across 23 IITs In Five Years

Between the academic years 2020-21 and 2024-25, 53 students died across 23 IITs. Of these, 45 deaths were classified as suicides and eight as other unnatural deaths, according to information the Ministry of Education obtained from the institutes.

The annual number of student deaths rose from five in 2020-21 to six in 2021-22 and six in 2022-23. It then increased to 17 in 2023-24 and 19 in 2024-25.

Of the 53 deaths, 29 involved students from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class categories. This included 12 OBC students, 10 SC students and seven ST students. The remaining 24 deaths involved 23 students from the general category and one from the Economically Weaker Section category. These figures describe the recorded cases and should not be treated as evidence that caste identity caused or independently explains the deaths.

The figures came from submissions made by the IITs to the Ministry of Education in response to a Lok Sabha question. The Ministry received the data but did not table it in Parliament.

A separate compilation by IIT Kanpur alumnus Dheeraj Singh, based on Right to Information responses and media reports, counted 171 student suicides and unnatural deaths across IITs between January 2006 and September 2026. The compilation recorded 51 deaths between 2006 and 2015 and 120 between 2016 and September 2026. It also counted 74 deaths between September 2021 and September 18, 2026.

A 2024 study titled Mental Health Consequences of Academic Stress, Amotivation, and Coaching Experience: A Study of India's Top Engineering Undergraduates, published in Psychology in the Schools, examined factors associated with mental health among engineering undergraduates in India. Based on interviews with 16 students and a survey of 395, it identified the centrality of engineering identity, parental pressure, academic stress during coaching and college years, upward social comparison and motivation-related factors as associated with stress- and guilt-related symptoms. The study also found that academic amotivation mediated the relationship between academic stress and students' mental health.

Student Suicides In India: What Do NCRB Figures Show?

The issue extends beyond the IIT system. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2024 report, 14,488 people categorised as students died by suicide in 2024. This was an increase of around 4.3% from the 13,892 student suicides recorded in 2023.

Student suicides accounted for 8.5% of the 170,746 suicide deaths recorded across India in 2024. The national total was marginally lower than the figure for 2023, even as the number of deaths in the student category increased.

The NCRB's 2024 report lists family problems and illness as the leading reported circumstances associated with suicide. Its introductory section also identifies professional and career problems, isolation and mental disorders among the circumstances associated with suicide. These are national-level figures and cannot explain the circumstances of an individual death.

IIT Roorkee's February announcement set out plans for a comprehensive mental health framework, while its November 2024 disclosure listed the counselling services already available on campus. Whether the policy has since been adopted, what changes have been made to the support system, and how the institute assesses students' access to care remain unanswered.