Student suicides in educational institutions have become an issue of grave concern. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that the number of student suicides in the country went up by 4.3% over the 13,892 such deaths in 2023. More than 13,000 students took their lives in 2021; the figure surpassed suicides by farmers that year, according to a report by IC3 Institute. The Supreme Court has quite rightly described this disturbing phenomenon as an “epidemic” that demands urgent action. The apex court appointed a National Task Force to look into students’ mental health concerns so as to prevent such fatalities. The findings of the interim report made public recently paint a grim picture. The NTF found that 65% of the 2,119 higher education institutions surveyed did not provide students with access to mental health service providers; 73% of such institutions lacked a full-time mental health professional; and fewer than 4% have a suicide-risk assessment mechanism. Shockingly, almost half of the institutions surveyed had not conducted a faculty sensitisation workshop in the last 18 months. From its field visits to 13 higher education institutions, the panel also noticed that the mandated cells and the committees exist only on paper in most of these places. The inference, echoed by the report, is undeniable: institutional apathy is driving students to despair, self-harm, and silent struggles for survival.
The brewing mental health crisis among the youth is a global phenomenon. Economic challenges, parental demands for excellence, and examination pressures are shared triggers. But the crisis has peculiarities in India. For instance, administrative and governmental lapses that have resulted in frequent leaks of question papers and, consequently, cancellation of entrance examinations have compounded the challenge. Moreover, higher education institutions in this country also function as unequal melting pots where societal inequalities along the lines of caste, faith and gender can collide with explosive results. This intersectionality creates a volatile ambience, especially for youth hailing from socially marginalised backgrounds. When institutions remain passive in the face of such embedded but invisibilised forms of discrimination, the consequences are tragic: Rohith Vemula’s death is a case in point. Such lapses on the part of educational institutes must be penalised. A robust remedial plan involving stakeholders — administrations, government, students, parents — must be formulated but it must go beyond the formulaic. The NTF has opened the eyes of the nation. The powers that be must now act to prevent the loss of young, scholarly lives.