In a sorrowful accident at IIT Bombay a 21-year-old engineering student, Naman Agarwal, supposedly took his own life by leaping off a terrace of the hostel in the early hours of Wednesday.
What Happened Actually?
The motives of Agarwal, a second year student who was born in Pilani, Rajasthan, are still unclear because Powai police are still investigating the case in accordance with an Accidental Death Report. This is after a similar tragedy last month at IIT Kanpur when a 25 year old PhD student who was depressed also committed suicide, a worrying and worrying pattern in the largest technological institution in India. The repetitive occurrence of these acts has raised a lot of legal and systematic intervention. In March of 2025, the Supreme Court had created a National Task Force (NTF) to care about student mental health. Another national survey of 16 lakh later found a shocking shortage of resources: 65 percent of the institutions had no mental health practitioners and almost 75 percent had no full time counselors. These results indicate that even the high academic demand in the elite colleges is usually compounded by a systematic inability to offer sufficient psychological assistance.
Suicides In Campus
As a way of resolving this crisis, the Supreme Court made historic rulings on 16 January 2026, which directly blamed institutions to take care of the students. The court required that colleges should not punish students due to delays in scholarships and should notify the authorities of all the natural deaths that are unnatural whether on or off campus. The judiciary is expected to transform the situation by being more supportive and enforcing the need to have better mental health infrastructure by ensuring that they have the necessary institutions to stop the increase in student suicides in higher education.
DISCLAIMER:
(If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or going through a crisis, we urge you to reach out to suicide helpline numbers.)
Helplines
AASRA – 9820466726
Vandrevala Foundation for Mental Health – 9999666555
Parivarthan Counselling Helpline- 7676602602
Lifeline Foundation- 9088030303
Parivarthan Counselling Helpline- 7676602602
