The institute has never seen such a large turnout of students at a protest.
| Photo Credit: special arrangement
Unprecedented scenes have unfolded at one of India’s most prestigious engineering institutions — the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi — over the past week, following the death by suicide of an MSc student.Classes have been largely called off, and students have been holding a sit-in where the student died last week. Never has the institute witnessed agitation and student mobilisation at this scale.“Every death is followed by a copy-paste e-mail from the administration, following which the campus is almost immediately expected to go back to normal, even as memorials are held for those who died on the campus,” said a student who wished to remain anonymous.On the boilThis “pent-up frustration”, the student added, blew up when students who had seen the 31-year-old’s body were called for classes soon after in the Lecture Hall Complex, the very spot where the death had occured. A comment from an administrative official that the student was “beyond repair” further angered the students.The administration responded by setting up an external probe committee, which was reconstituted following objections from the protesters, and providing financial assistance to the family, though the amount has not been specified. The institute is yet to comment on allegations over the “insensitive remarks” following the student’s death.On Thursday, IIT Delhi said the academic load had been lightened significantly since 2025, with lower credit loads in the first semester, smaller classes to minimise stress, fewer weekend exams and flexible credit distribution.To this, an IIT-D student, who has studied at Delhi University and wished to stay anonymous, said, “The academic pressure is intense. Families don’t understand why we can’t give them time. Many of us have to pull all-nighters and function on one or two hours of sleep.”Mental health supportOn the institute’s assertion that students’ well-being is supported by a 24x7 team of counsellors and psychiatrists, fully reimbursed external care and a swift emergency protocol, students said counselling is inaccessible or ineffective. “There has been no monthly roster of counsellors in the past year,” said another student. In addition, the student said that parents are involved in such cases, raising privacy concerns.A source at the institute countered this, saying the counselling centre is accessible and only minutes away from the hostels.(Those in distress can contact Tele MANAS at 14416 to seek help) Published - August 29, 2026 01:08 am IST
