Guwahati surpasses Kota in student suicides, 150 deaths in nine years

New Delhi, June 27: Student suicide cases are rising at an alarming rate in Guwahati, an unnoticed surge that has now outpaced figures from some of the country’s most high-pressure academic centres like Kota.

Official records from just five of Guwahati’s 17 police stations reveal that nearly 150 students committed suicide between 2015 and 2024 – much more than what Kota witnessed during the same period. Kota, the country’s most talked about coaching hub has reported 147 student suicide deaths over the last 10 years.

While the spike in the number of students going to the brink has laid bare the hidden cost of relentless academic pressure and unmet emotional support, no effective measures seem to be in place to address the issue.

Worryingly, even if a conservative estimate of the total number of student deaths by suicide is to be done encompassing all the police stations of Guwahati, the death toll of students and teenagers may well exceed the 300 mark.

According to the data accessed, Dispur Police Station reported 53 student suicides in the last 10 years.

This is possibly the highest for any police station in the State. Similarly, Khetri Police Station registered 29 student suicides, while Hatigaon and Sonapur Police Stations recorded 23 and 12 suicide deaths, respectively.

“IIT Guwahati alone recorded 14 suicides over the past five years drawing media scrutiny and public discourse. But beyond this, a much larger and more troubling pattern has quietly unfolded across Guwahati,” a Guwahati-based mental health counsellor told The Assam Tribune.

Overall, Guwahati has reported more than 1,800 cases of suicides (all age groups) in the last 10 years.

According to a report, in India, Maharashtra accounted for the highest number of student deaths by suicides followed by Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, in 2022.

“Guwahati’s numbers vis-a-vis student suicides is just the tip of the iceberg, and the picture would be much more disturbing if a State-wide assessment is done. If you talk about Guwahati and student suicides, you are indirectly referring to other States of the region as hundreds of students from other States come to Guwahati for studies. The figures are worrisome, to say the least,” said an educationist.

By

Sanjoy Ray