As Sanjay Nerkar returns from his office in Nashik, a small town in India’s Maharashtra state, he waits almost instinctively for a phone call – one he knows will never come.

For nearly a decade, while his son, Varad Nerker, lived away from home for studies, he called his father at dusk.

“He didn’t get a BTech there, but he refused to give up,” Nerkar says. When the MTech result came, the family distributed sweets. “It felt like the dream belonged to all of us.”

And then his voice breaks. “If I had known what IIT-Delhi would take away from me, I would never have sent him,” he told Al Jazeera, his voice softening. “Oh, Varad… Why did you leave so early?”

On February 15, 2024, Varad died by what IIT-Delhi termed a suicide – one among 65 student suicides across the IITs and the eighth at IIT-Delhi since 2021.

Varad was 26. Only days earlier, he had told his mother about intense academic stress and alleged pressure from his supervisor.

In 2025, about 1.3 million high school graduates took the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, a computer-based screening of candidates conducted by India’s National Testing Agency twice a year.

Only about 250,000 qualify for the next round, called JEE Advanced, the final round of screening to compete for only 18,000 Bachelors in Technology (BTech) seats at the IITs, which are allocated based on rank, category, and preferences.

For MTech programmes, 800,000 to 1,000,000 candidates appear for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) annually, with about 8,500 securing admission – an average of one in 72 for BTech and one in 117 for MTech courses.

The number of PhD seats at IITs varies each year and depends on open slots with a professor.

Over the decades, the IITs have produced prominent figures such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, along with more than 35 Indian billionaires – and even several leading politicians, writers and journalists.

According to 6figr.com, an AI-driven career data platform, the average salary of an IIT graduate working in the United States ranges between $216,000 and $235,000 annually, nearly four times the national average salary in the US.

Dheeraj Singh is the founder of Global IIT-IIM Alumni Support Group, which not only helps the students with placements, but also works on their mental wellbeing and supporting the bereaved families. IIM refers to the Indian Institute of Management, another premier chain of state-run schools.

“Being an IITian is not just a tag; it brings respect to the entire family,” Singh told Al Jazeera.

Yet, there is another side to the IIT story, mostly overlooked, but one that keeps recurring with an alarming frequency.

While the institutes highlight record placements every year, many graduates are left without jobs. In 2024, about 38 percent of IIT graduates went unplaced, according to the institutes’ data – a reality experts say is often overlooked to preserve institutional prestige.

“IITs publicise top placements but seldom talk about the other side. Nearly half the students struggle during placements,” said Singh.

Expectations, he explains, are enormous. “When academic pressure combines with placement stress, the situation becomes extremely serious.”

Singh recalled a student at IIT-Kanpur – another top-seven campus – who contacted his support group fearing unemployment: “He said, ‘If I don’t get placed, I will end my life.’ Despite our efforts, he later died by suicide,” said Singh.

According to data shared by Singh, compiled from government officials and various IITs, 160 student suicide deaths were recorded across the IITs in the past two decades – 69 of them in the last five years.

Among them was Darshan Solanki, a bright 20-year-old who had dreamt of an IIT degree since his childhood.

His father, Ramesh, a plumber in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the western Gujarat state, says Darshan cleared the IIT entrance test in 2022. But he did not get his preferred branch of engineering and tried again the next year. In 2023, he joined the chemical engineering course at IIT-Bombay, as the institute in India’s financial capital is still called despite the city being renamed to Mumbai in 1995.

“That was the happiest day of my life. I cried, and Darshan told me, ‘Papa, I have done it. Our life now will become easier.’ He wanted me to leave plumbing once he got a good job,” Solanki told Al Jazeera. “I had never imagined he would not even finish his studies.”

The Solankis are Dalits, who fall in the least privileged caste hierarchy and were considered “untouchable” until a law banned the practice.

“We belong to a lower caste. Why should that matter? The humiliation affected my son deeply, and then came the academic pressure. How can a 20-year-old bear both mental harassment and studies?” Solanki asked.

He alleged the IIT authorities blamed his son for not coping with academic pressure.

“They said he wasn’t good enough, but how could that be when he had cracked the IIT twice? He was brilliant, my best son,” he said as he broke into tears. “They took my only son away from me.”

Singh of the Global IIT-IIM Alumni Support Group agreed that caste-based discrimination remains prevalent at the IITs and that many reported suicides involve students from marginalised communities.

Government data supports the concern: Of the 122 students at the IITs, IIMs, central universities and other federally-funded institutes who died by suicide between 2014 and 2021, 24 belonged to what are officially referred to as Scheduled Castes, three belonged to the Scheduled Tribes category, and 41 were members of other backward castes (OBCs) – a total of 68 students, or about 55 percent of the total suicides reported at those campuses, despite a lower representation of students from the least privileged caste groups.

Experts and students at the IITs have also repeatedly flagged a power imbalance, mainly between PhD scholars and their supervisors. Fellowships, which, among other things, mean financial assistance, stop after five years, forcing students to finish within that period.

“When funding ends, usually around the age of 30, the uncertainty becomes deeply distressing,” Sushant*, a doctoral student at IIT-Kanpur, told Al Jazeera. “The supervisor controls whether the thesis is approved, making us entirely dependent on one person. Many supervisors are toxic, and this traumatises students and can push them towards suicide.”

Recently, IIT authorities announced that PhD scholars unable to complete their thesis within seven years could face termination of their admission and their PhD candidature withdrawn.

The most recent suicide at IIT-Kanpur involved PhD scholar Ramswroop Ishram, who in January this year died by suicide at the hostel where he lived with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

A similar case occurred at IIT-Madras in March 2023 when PhD scholar Sachin Kumar Jain died by suicide.

An investigation found that academic pressure from his supervisor contributed to the death. The concerned faculty member was suspended, and no suicides have been reported at the campus since.

Singh called the action commendable, but lamented that other IITs failed to follow suit, highlighting widespread accountability gaps despite a rising number of suicides.

Al Jazeera made several phone calls and sent emails to the IIT authorities, but did not get any response.

He told Al Jazeera the situation was “deeply troubling”, noting that his task force has received thousands of complaints and collected preliminary data that is yet to be placed before the authorities and the court. He said the suicide crisis has a structural dimension and is partly rooted in broader social realities but largely within the institutions.

Singh said the IITs “can and should do far more” to prevent such deaths, accusing the tech schools of often distancing themselves from responsibility after a suicide, which does little to reduce the frequency of such incidents. He noted two common responses from the IITs: If a student was doing well academically, the death was blamed on “personal issues” such as tensions with the family or other relationships. If the student was struggling, the suicide was attributed to an inability to handle competition.

In both cases, he said, accountability is sidestepped.

Singh said a large number of suicides take place around examinations, pointing towards academic pressure and stress as contributing factors. Rather than shifting blame, he urged institutes to step in and work on preventive solutions.

Experts say suicides at the IITs are preventable and can be reduced through timely intervention.

Aqsa Sheikh, a doctor and a member of the National Task Force on Student Suicide Prevention, told Al Jazeera that while the IITs have appointed mental health counsellors, their efforts fall short of what is required.

“There has to be greater accountability and proactive intervention. Students under severe stress are unlikely to seek help on their own. Institutes must identify them and make the first move. I am not saying they are doing nothing, but much more is expected,” she said.

Singh agreed, adding that his small support group has counselled hundreds of IIT students on the verge of breakdown due to academic and personal stress.

“If a small organisation like ours can do this, why can’t the IITs?” he said. “The issue is not resources but intent, and the will to prevent suicides.” (Al Jazeera)

•PHOTO: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India (Courtesy of Creative Commons)

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