More than 35,000 student suicide were recorded in India from 2019 to 2021, Abbaiah Narayanaswamy, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, told the parliament on Tuesday.
Minister shared the data in a return reply to a question concerned about the number of suicides by the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) students due to the social discrimination in the country.
“(There is) no information regarding the number of SC, ST students who committed suicides due to the social discrimination in the country,” Narayanaswamy said.
The number of student suicides increased from 10,335 in 2019 to 12,526 in 2020 and 13,089 in 2021, as per the data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB)
On the initiatives taken to control the social discrimination, Narayanaswamy informed that the Department of Higher Education has established counselling cells and various mechanisms such as SC/ST students’ cells, equal opportunity cells, students’ grievance cells, students’ grievance committee, and appointed liaison officers in educational institutions across the country.
“Further, the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act, 1955, which prescribes punishment for enforcement of any disability arising from the practice of ‘untouchability’, and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is in force to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against members, including students, of SCs and STs,” he said.