Supporters of the Cockroach Janta party call for the government to be held accountable for exam leaks during a protest in New Delhi. Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA View image in fullscreen Supporters of the Cockroach Janta party call for the government to be held accountable for exam leaks during a protest in New Delhi. Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA Global development Cockroach protests: parents of Indian students who took their own lives reveal pressure of leaked exam papers and resits The number of student suicides in the country has risen steeply in the past 10 years and many families blame education system mismanagement as a contributing factor
About this content Cheena Kapoor Sun 9 Aug 2026 06.00 CEST Last modified on Sun 9 Aug 2026 06.02 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google W hen the Indian government announced the resignation of its education minister in late July after weeks of protest, there were widespread celebrations. Students from across the country had joined the mass demonstrations led by the Cockroach Janta party amid growing resentment over repeated examination cancellations and question paper leaks.
The pressure of exams in the country has only increased in recent years. The number of student suicides rose from 8,068 in 2014, to 14,488 in 2024 – an increase of roughly 80% – according to the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report released by the country’s National Crime Records Bureau. After family problems, failure in examinations has been listed as the leading cause of suicides among students.
For families who say they lost their children to education system mismanagement and examination scandals, watching the protest scenes unfold on television came with mixed feelings. Some were happy that future students may be spared the same fate; others questioned why it had taken so long.
The Guardian spoke to four families about what happened to their children and how they feel today.
View image in fullscreen Anshika’s parents sit under a wall of motivational posters she liked. Photograph: Cheena Kapoor Anshika Pandey, the eldest of twin sisters and four siblings, was, her father says, the calmest, quietest and most responsible member of the family. Revision books still lie neatly stacked, bags and accreditation cards hang from the nails where they were last placed. Her ambition was to be a doctor in the community where she lived, to be able to help the “poor people in need of medical care” some day.
Pandey studied for more than 12 hours every day, worked part-time at a store for nearly six hours and slept no more than five hours each night.
This year’s national eligibility cum entrance test (Neet) to gain entrance to medical training was her third attempt at becoming a doctor. After sitting the exam on 3 May, she was hopeful. But on 12 May she learned that the exam had been leaked for the second year in a row and there would be a resit.
View image in fullscreen Sketches made by Anshika Pandey; and a book she was reading at the time of her death. Photograph: Cheena Kapoor “Anshika was deeply hurt. She had been hoping to enter college this year and was happy with the exam she had taken. Still, after cancellation, when I tried to console her, all she lamented was how could she hope to give another good exam,” says her father, Indradhar Pandey, a cab driver in Delhi.
Anshika remained calm and performed her household duties and engaged with everyone normally. But two days later, on 14 May, when everyone had left fo…