Student suicides in India often stem from three interconnected pressures: caste discrimination, economic stress, and sexual harassment.

Caste discrimination significantly affects marginalised students, especially those from rural areas, who struggle to adapt to urban academic environments. Students entering elite institutions like IITs, IIMs, and central universities face cultural isolation, language barriers, and prejudice due to reservations, intensifying their challenges.

The case of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD scholar, brought national attention to caste-based discrimination. Vemula’s suicide was the result of systemic neglect and social ostracisation within the University of Hyderabad.

These practices exist against the backdrop of India’s urban-rural divide, where urban elite institutions are perceived as inaccessible to rural, lower-caste students, and consequently, economic stress acts as a silent yet powerful force, driving many students to despair. 

Carrying the weight of their families’ hopes, they often take on substantial debt to afford their education. But what happens when that promise becomes a financial trap? Over half of high-debt borrowers experience depression because of their loans, and 9 in 10 struggle with severe anxiety. The burden can feel relentless, with 1 in 15 borrowers considering suicide as a way out. The weight of debt, family expectations, and an unstable job market can make the very goal of education feel like an unbearable burden.

This silence is further amplified by the absence of proper complaint mechanisms and unresponsive institutional policies, which offer lip service and serve no one.

The patriarchal norms of Indian society further discourage women from speaking up on unjustifiable and illegitimate violations committed by the opposite gender. The cultural stigma surrounding such harassment paired with utter insensitivity further leads to feelings of guilt, shame, and isolation.  

When these problems persist across all settings from high-ranking universities to private and public schools in both urban and rural areas, the experience of victims in conservative families becomes even more monstrous. This isolation often turns out to be deadly, leaving victims feeling trapped and hopeless, sometimes driving them to the tragic choice of ending their lives. 

(Deepanshu Mohan is a Professor of Economics, Dean, IDEAS, Office of Inter-Disciplinary Studies, and Director of Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES), OP Jindal Global University. He is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, and a 2024 Fall Academic Visitor to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. Ankur Singh, Bhanavi Behl, Niharika Amte and Theresa Jose are Research Assistants with CNES and Members of the CNES InfoSphere Team. This is an opinion article and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)