179 - Why IITs have significant number of suicides attached to their prestigious status?

Indian Institutes of Technology: Why IITs have significant number of suicides attached to their prestigious status?

IITs no doubt are carving some of the best minds in engineering, not only in India but entire Asia!

Student push themselves very hard to reach this place, beating several rounds of exams and interviews, years of hard work!

Then what is the actual reason that then the brilliant minds out of million minds forced to end up like this!

Why they Quit?

*FOR THE NOTE

Seven students took the drastic step in IITs across the country in 2011. According to the HRD ministry , IITs reported two cases in 2010, four in 2009 and five in 2008.

COMMENT:

Antariksh Bothale, BTech+MTech in Mechanical Engineering... (more)

56 votes by Vijay Singh, Siddhardha Sukka, Seema Chouhan, (more)

Suicides don't take place after some kind of a board meeting where a thorough cost-benefit analysis is performed and the pros and cons of the act are discussed and debated, preferably with Powerpoints and Excel Sheets.

Suicide is a complicated thing. It looks like a random incident to an outsider, but it is usually the denouement of a long and complicated story. As Tanuj says in is comment below, suicides must be diagnosed by looking at people as individuals rather than stereotypes.  

Since this question is specifically about IIT, here are some pointers:

• IITs have a fairly competitive atmosphere. A lot of students may not perceive it as such, but there can be a lot of implicit pressure to perform well. Perform in academics. Perform in extra-curricular activities. Get positions of responsibility. Become something. There's added pressure from family in particular and society in general
• What's worse is that it is often possible to mask the stress you feel with a veneer of apathy and general indifference, convincing yourself that everything is fine, that life is chill. This is worse since it makes you lie to yourself, while a part of you keeps hitting increasingly low depths. The proliferation of laptops and the internet sometimes makes it easier for these issues to stay hidden
• Add to this possible financial issues. IITs are still largely affordable, but not being financially well-off can often cause secondary psychological problems apart from the primary money-related ones, everything getting worse if you are already in a pool of misery because of other issues
• Finally, there's the additional complication of the skewed gender ratio. As a freshman you joke about it until it stops being funny, and as a senior you just resign to your fate, but the truth remains that lack of sufficient interaction with the opposite gender can contribute to overall stress. I know of quite a few people who have visited the counselor at IITB with these issues
• The picture is not as rosy as it appears to outsiders. Merely being in an IIT is NOT enough. This realization is at complete odds with the drivel you are fed while you prepare for the JEE. This can, in some cases, make people suddenly feel worthless, especially because they are surrounded by students who've all achieved well in their past. This is also something outsiders find very difficult to stomach, giving arguments such as those in this question. "You are one out of the few thousands at a place where millions wanted to be! How can you not be happy?!?"

Once you start looking at people as individuals with distinct and unique problems and situations, you'd be able to help them better. Unfortunately, that takes time and effort. It is much easier to propose some drastic blanket solution just so that the administration is seen as having done something. That's what happens post suicides. Ban internet, enforce attendance, and loads of other arbitrary actions in the hope that they will make everything better.