Higher educational institutions have largely remained unresponsive to a survey conducted by a Supreme Court-appointed national task force on checking student suicides on campuses.
Out of nearly 58,000 universities and colleges in India, 57,000 institutions are yet to respond to the survey seeking details from each of these institutions on cases of suicide, preventive mechanisms and student support infrastructure. The court expressed displeasure but gave an opportunity to the defaulting institutions to undertake the survey.
The court order said: “We would like to give one last opportunity to all these institutes to cooperate and join the survey, failing which we may have to pass some orders which the institutes may not like and may bring a bad name to the respective institutes.”
Based on the order, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday wrote to all higher educational institutions to cooperate with the data-gathering exercise.
“Considering the strict view expressed by the Supreme Court, all HEIs are once again urgently requested to treat this as a matter of highest institutional priority and ensure full, proactive and timely compliance of the order dated October 10 without any further delay,” said a circular issued by UGC secretary Manish Joshi.
The task force, headed by former judge Ravindra Bhat, aims to develop a policy framework to improve student well-being and prevent suicides in higher educational institutions. The task force is collecting data from stakeholders such as students and teachers independently on campus environment, inclusivity and belongingness, sources of distress and systemic discrimination and grievance redress mechanisms.