There have been 40 suicides in IITs in the last 32 months (more than 1 every month).
I'm as concerned as anyone else but my diagnosis is probably different. Consider the following points:
1. Today there are a total of 17,740 seats in all IITs put together. While one exam (IIT-JEE) does not define anyone's long term potential (read that again), it does give feedback on one's level of preparation in Science and Mathematics at the end of 12th Grade. After having been a student at IIT Bombay and having taught at IITs Delhi, Kanpur, Varanasi, Goa and Dhanbad, I can assure you that ranks lesser than about 5000 indicate a level of preparation lower than what's required to grasp the level of rigor at IITs. We need to reduce seats in IITs and increase them by the same amount in NITs, IIITs and state government colleges. 5000 probably won't sell for politicians and their constituencies, but a reasonable cap does need to come in. I repeat: Reduce seats in IITs and increase them by the same amount in NITs, IIITs and state government colleges. And this whole cause will be helped if parents understand that "hamaare bacche ko IIT karana hai" is not a higher goal than their child's well being and happiness. Hardworking and committed students can, and do, succeed from anywhere. Being an "IITian" is not a prerequisite for a successful and happy life.
2. All students coming through affirmative action quotas (SC-ST-PD-OBC-Gender) will be served well if they go through the 1 Year Prep Course (facility already available but not used widely enough) before starting their degree programs. One extra year of investment in one's education is well worth it in the long run. The JEE cut-offs for affirmative action quotas are usually much lower than General Category, and minus the prep course preparation they tend to struggle.
3. Make a certain attendance percentage mandatory. Several IITs are still lax on this front. This results in students lounging around in hostels when classes and labs are on, many of these students drift into excessive video gaming, internet addiction, alcohol, drugs and porn addiction. Weeks slip by and when exams arrive many of them panic and rush to counselors. But it's often too late to help and many of them either end up failing or getting very low grades. This feeds back into their psyches, dents their confidence, and students who were perfectly good to start with start struggling with psychological issues and depression. A lot of this can be addressed by the simple requirement of insisting that students come to class.
4. The above 3 points focus on the undergraduate student population coming through the IIT-JEE. Implement similar strategies for Masters students coming through GATE and JAM.
5. Maintain rigor in PhD admissions instead of reducing the bar to take in and graduate more PhDs to climb rankings faster. As an example, I myself was part of a PhD interview panel for aerodynamics at IIT Kanpur in 2011 where many students coming in after having completed their Masters weren't even able to write down the governing (Navier-Stokes) equations of their subject on the blackboard. I maintained, and still do, that these students were not ready to start their PhDs and should have been asked to come back for a fresh interview after 6 months. But my colleagues resisted my stance fiercely because their promotions depend on "how many" PhD students they graduate. And this constraint has been brought in because university rankings in the western first world paradigm depend on "how many" PhD students the university graduates every year. But our third world realities are different and it is the students who suffer the most - both in coping up during their PhD programs and in the job marker after graduating.
Once the above five points are in place, counseling services and student support systems will definitely help. But unless we honestly confront and address core issues, every other strategy proves ineffective in the long run.
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