It is distressing to read newspaper reports of young students ending their lives. During the 2018-23 quinquennium, at least 61 students were vanishing: the Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs (33), the National Institutes of Technology, or NITs (24) and the Indian Institutes of Management (4). In the septennial of 2014-21, there were 122 cases in various higher education institutions. In both the groups, majority of the students were from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Castes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). Marginalization and deprivation are factors but a broad spectrum of students is also found.
campuses are now impersonal places
The fact is that campuses have become large and impersonal places. Family support is declining as there are now more nuclear families with working parents who are unable to provide the nurturing and mentoring that joint families provide. Individualism is widespread in the society. As a result, the early signs of emotional distress go unnoticed, unrecognized and unheard. Generally, institutions are in denial mode and prefer to hush things up. They expect parents to deal with the situation. Students in emotional distress are sometimes advised to spend time with their families.
The system in institutions of higher education is such that there is hardly any free and fair communication between students, their seniors, teachers and administration. A ‘home away from home’ experience away from the students. Classroom conversations are limited to academics, with recurring exhortations to keep students committed, dedicated and working hard, adding to the stress already on emotionally troubled students. Teachers may hardly have the time, inclination, or even expertise to spot and address any troubling symptoms among their students. In any case, an overly formal, standardized and hierarchical structure can never be conducive to fostering compatibility or empathy.
As a result, students are deprived of much needed preventive measures. It is only when tragedy occurs that action is initiated – an investigation and then the prescription of remedial and preventive measures. That’s it.
Most of the campus suicides are attributed to academic pressure, family circumstances, personal reasons, different types of stress, financial crisis, caste-based discrimination and many different types of harassment. Many sources of distress lie outside the purview of higher education institutions and have their origins in larger economic and social contexts. Therefore, each of these causes needs to be addressed at their source by the government, society, institutions, parents and families.
Formal mechanisms exist to provide individualized, cultural and psychological counseling to students. Most IITs, NITs and the like have established (or are beginning to) online and offline mechanisms to access personalized counseling and therapies in a confidential manner. Apps like Dost, Saathi and Mitra have also been launched to access their services anonymously. Most of these institutes also organize awareness and sensitization programs for the students.
Yet, such centers are in many cases less visible. The onus is on the ‘needy’ students to seek help – they should be the ones to make the appointment. Another drawback is that they work most of the time during office hours and on working days, and are often unable to respond in a prompt manner. One of the IITs claims, and rightly so, that ‘it tries to help students as early as possible and as much as possible’. Some of them have arrangements with outside agencies to provide psychological counselling. The fact remains that institutions of national importance are in a much better position than most central and state universities (the little information available suggests that they generally assign counseling to faculty members and are yet to employ professionally trained counsellors). have not been able to accept the view of
a study in contrasts
In comparison, universities in the United States have dedicated counseling centers with separate psychological services such as assessment, counselling, counseling and therapy – individual and group. They are accredited by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services (IACS) and staffed by licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical therapists, mental health workers, and social workers. The mentor-student ratio has been carefully established through a combination of empirical analysis and the judgments of experienced mentoring directors.
In contrast, psychological counseling services in Indian campuses are limited to providing some physical space in one corner of the institution with a limited number of professionally trained psychologists and psychiatrists. There is hardly any standard. One wishes that the approval and accreditation process of institutions would give as much importance to this aspect of student life as is given to floor area, faculty, books and even computers. A well-oiled life support system is needed for many students.
It can be easy to strengthen and streamline counseling and therapy as remedial measures. What is important but most difficult is creating the conditions to create an assimilating culture of cohesion and fostering respect for academic and socio-economic diversity. Institutions must stop and prevent all forms of discrimination, no matter how subtle and even in jest.
Sometimes the inability to withstand academic pressure and get good grades is linked to the class and rank of the students. Some fringe elements on campus may be adverse about reservation in admission and differential fee policies.
Can’t institutions be careful about such sensitive information? Couldn’t they develop a code of campus ethics that sets standards and protocols for what can and cannot be discussed even in informal social settings? Social, economic and cultural diversity on campuses add value – but only if they are sensitively nurtured and used carefully.
Ayalur K. Bhaktavatsalam is HAG Professor at National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Furqan Qamar, Professor at the Faculty of Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, is a former Adviser on Education in the Planning Commission of India. The views expressed are personal. People in distress can seek professional help and counseling