A crisis of death on Bengaluru’s college campuses Premium

Student suicides in Bengaluru prompt calls for mental health support in educational institutions to prevent further tragedies.

Trigger warning: The following article has references to suicide. Please avoid reading if you feel distressed by the subject

It was May 14, just another day on the PES University campus in Electronics City in south-east Bengaluru. Pavan (name changed to protect identity), a second-year engineeringstudent, remembers that the students were busy with last-minute exam preparation.

“I was studying in a classroom on the fourth floor in the morning. It was 10.10 a.m. I saw a student standing very close to the railing in the corridor. Then, right as I watched, he jumped,” said Pavan, who was traumatised by the incident, with a stifled cry. Soon, they found out that a third-year engineering student, Rahul K., had died. He was the fourth student who had died in the same institution in the last one year.

In July 2023, Aditya Prabhu, a 19-year-old engineering student, took his life on the Girinagar campus in south Bengaluru on his birthday after he was allegedly verbally abused by college authorities for bringing his mobile phone into the examination hall. This incident sparked several protests by the student community demanding #JusticeforAdityaPrabhu. In October 2023, Surya M. Achar, a third-year year-engineering student, was found dead. Vignesh K., a first-year BBA student, also died in January 2024.

From examination-related troubles to relationship issues, investigating agencies have attributed a wide range of reasons for students taking the extreme step. Between October 2023 and January 2024, the death of students of reputed educational institutions made it to the news almost every month.

In November 2023, Ashwin Nambiyar, a 21-year-old student of Azim Premji University, was found dead in the hostel after allegedly being suspended for a week for violation of a rule. One month later, in December 2023, Diamond Kushwaha, a PhD student, ended his life at the Indian Institute of Science.

In January 2024, 19-year-old Dhruv Jatin Thakkar, a first-year student of the B.A., LL.B. programme at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, died at the Attiguppe metro station. On May 16, just a few days after the fourth death at PES University, Harshitha, a 21-year-old B.Tech student of Bangalore College of Engineering and Technology on the outskirts of Bengaluru, allegedly ended her life in her hostel room.