Chief Justice DY Chandrachud To Centre

New Delhi: Chief Justice DY Chandrachud expressed concern over the rising instances of suicides among students in the country and ordered the Union Health Ministry to file an affidavit on steps being taken to prevent them.

Student suicide is a very serious social issue, the court noted.

Gaurav Bansal, an advocate, had filed a Public Interest Litigation, or PIL, demanding that measures be taken to stop the increasing tendency of suicides among children.

According to the Delhi Police’s response to an RTI query, over 400 students under the age of 18 died by suicide in the national capital Delhi between 2014 and 2018, Mr Bansal said.

Suicide is the largest public health crisis facing people, both the young and the old, in India, experts said, reported news agency IANS.

According to a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released in April, 1.71 lakh people died by suicide in 2022 in India.

The suicide rate has increased to 12.4 per 1,00,000 people, the highest rate ever recorded in India.