Published Jul 30, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 30, 2025 | 7:00 AM
Mental Health. Representative Image. (iStock)
Synopsis: Despite rules meant to protect the mental health of students, deaths by suicide have been rising in educational institutions. Students face deep layers of exclusion, including caste divisions. The lack of proper support to students with disabilities is also concerning.
Despite rules meant to protect the mental health of students, deaths by suicide have been rising in educational institutions in India, including premier institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and even medical colleges.
Behind well-known success stories lie hidden struggles of students who are forced into careers they never chose, others carrying caste‑based bias, and many struggling in a system that rarely notices when they begin to slip.
Beyond coursework, students face deep layers of exclusion. Even today, caste divisions influence treatment in classrooms, quiet labels determine who is valued, and disabled students are often denied the accommodations they are promised. These pressures, combined with heavy academic demands, erode confidence and sometimes push young people to breaking points.
With over a decade of experience working with youth in northeast India, Dr Nilesh Mohite, a community psychiatrist, has seen first-hand how caste plays a significant role in shaping the mental health of medical students, particularly those who belong to the reserved categories.
Speaking to South First, he noted that while the new guidelines help reduce this to some extent, such situations continue to arise.
Talking about this lack of priority, he said, “In many schools and colleges, one counsellor is working for three or four institutions, and this counselling thing is still not given the importance it must get.” He pointed out that even the quality of counselling available is uneven.
Many are fresh graduates with little experience in handling adolescents, who need special understanding because of the pressures and changes they go through, and at times, even these experts show caste discrimination, which discourages students from seeking their help.
He explained that working with younger students is different from working with adults who already have maturity and realistic expectations. He said, “Children between 10 and 15 go through so many changes, and they require expertise that many counsellors do not have.”
He added that students spend only a few hours at school but most of their time at home, which makes the family environment equally important.
Giving an example, he recalled a recent incident, “Recently, one of my patients, a 22‑year‑old girl who was under treatment, died by suicide. Her best friend had died by suicide the day before, and that incident triggered her, leading her to take the same step the very next day.”
He explained that even with clinical care in place, if the overall environment is not supportive, tragedies continue to happen. He said that reducing student suicides is not only the work of psychiatrists or counsellors, but also parents, teachers, journalists and others who shape the culture around them.
Dr Mohite said teachers and parents must work together, starting with simply listening. He noted that most students feel unheard.
“When they tell parents they are not feeling good, 90 percent of parents blame mobile use or start advising instead of listening,” he said. Parents, he added, should ask about their child’s feelings, respect what they hear, avoid pressuring them into courses or competitions, and set realistic expectations instead of taking control of every situation.
He also spoke about teachers, explaining that discrimination in classrooms deeply affects mental health, with preference often shown to those with high marks. He referred to an incident in a private class where students were divided into batches based on caste categories, saying this only creates inferiority and mental strain.
Dr Mohite noted an instance at a medical college farewell event where some students wrote insulting lines on others’ aprons, such as “you don’t deserve to drink water, but now you are getting a degree with us”.
He spoke of a case of a 17‑year‑old student from a village who joined an IIT after excelling in his studies, but faced caste discrimination and died by suicide within weeks of joining. “Many counsellors have even posted things on their personal social media against reservation and the SC (Scheduled Caste) and ST (Scheduled Tribe) communities,” he added.
“So the students feel that if the counsellors are not affirmative about these issues in their own space, then how will they understand their feelings,” he added.
Reflecting on how constitutional values relate to mental health, he said, “I feel the Indian Constitution is a very good mental health tool because it tells us the value of freedom, equity, equality, all very important for mental health.” He added that when he said this in a professional setting, many laughed, but stressed, many mental health professionals come from privileged backgrounds and often fail to understand India’s social realities.
He explained that many follow Western models that expect 20 or more sessions, which is not practical in India, where most students may attend only two or three. He said these gaps must be addressed by training counsellors to understand the social context.
He pointed out that the new Supreme Court guideline that institutions must stop separating students by academic performance and avoid public shaming can help, if implemented. He explained that unnecessary ranking and notice‑board postings create comparison and discrimination, and removing them would reduce pressure.
Dr Mohite also spoke about identity‑based discrimination and its effect on students’ mental health. He said, “Unless anything affects performance, like keeping a beard or wearing a turban, should be allowed, and denying this freedom is against the constitution.” He added that caste and identity discrimination, even in top institutes, directly damages students’ mental health and must not be ignored.
Responding in an email to South First, Dr Satendra Singh, Director Professor of Physiology at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, described the academic and emotional pressures students face.
“Over the years in our mentoring programme, I have met students whose dreams were not their own. One young man wanted to be a wildlife photographer but was forced into medicine by his doctor parents. Another girl from the Northeast struggled to find belonging. Her language, her accent, and her identity all became barriers in a bustling Delhi classroom,” he said.
He noted that peer pressure starts alarmingly early. “PG coaching centres are running 9 to 9 classes on weekends for first-year students before they even understand what medicine truly is,” he said. Many students, he added, are homesick, isolated and quietly battling burnout while pretending they are fine.
Dr Singh said the Supreme Court’s new guidelines on student mental health are “a much-needed nudge in the right direction.
He explained that harmful practices like academic batch segregation have worsened stigma and pressure. “We have been alarmed by how both NMC (National Medical Council) and NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) have introduced the term slow learner. There are no slow learners, only fast judgements and slow support systems,” he said.
Many colleges still lack permanent counsellors, and students often avoid psychiatrists who are also examiners, breaking trust. “Absolutely, and they are structural,” he said, noting that students from tribal areas, the Northeast, LGBTQIA+ identities and those with disabilities face a double burden of academic pressure and systemic exclusion.
Dr Singh also highlighted challenges for students with disabilities. He criticised the 19 July 2025 NMC guidelines for lacking any framework for clinical accommodations despite the Supreme Court directives. “Many students are given a PwD (Person with Disability) label, and nothing else,” he said.
He noted that compensatory time provisions exist on paper but rarely reach classrooms.
“UGC mandated Enabling Units are missing, and disability is not even included in the preamble, definition of discrimination or objectives section of UGC’s draft Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Regulations 2025. It is like slapping a Band-Aid on a bleeding artery. Tokenism will not fix systemic injustice,” he added.
As for practical steps colleges should adopt, Dr Singh recommended moving beyond faculty-only mentoring. “We have found that faculty-supervised near-peer mentoring, like what we do at UCMS, is the game changer,” he said.
Peers notice red flags early, see mood changes, absences and withdrawal, and with proper training in suicide prevention and mental health literacy, they become the first line of support. “They do not replace the system, they humanise it,” he said.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
