Student suicides: IITs to create proper cadre for mental health professionals

New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology are considering creating a proper cadre of mental health professionals who will be engaged to ensure the psychological well-being of students and faculty, according to IIT Directors.

Several IITs have been at the centre of controversy this year for student suicides on campus due to different reasons. However, Directors of two IITs confirmed that the plan to create the cadre is not a fallout of the recent suicides but has been deliberated upon for at least two years.

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While IITs have taken initiatives in the past to address the mental health of students, the death of an IIT Bombay student on September 18, who was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on campus, has triggered protests, bringing back the spotlight on student suicides.

The incident came after an IIT Delhi student died by suicide in August, leading to outrage on the campus, and is one of the several such deaths that have occurred across the premier technical institutions of the country in recent years.

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The Ministry of Education had informed Parliament earlier this year that all IITs, IIMs, NITs and IIITs have put in place dedicated mental health or counselling centres within their campuses, staffed with full-time or visiting professional counsellors, clinical psychologists, and in some cases, psychiatrists.

"Counselling is available to students across all campuses at present. Some IITs have engaged with third-party apps while many have counsellors on campus, but that is not enough for the kind of student strength on campuses and a sustainable and long-term solution is being explored," an IIT Director told PTI.

"Mental health initiatives have been at centre of attention at IITs in previous years, and it has been deliberated upon since at least two years that IITs should have a proper cadre for mental health professionals, which not only provides a support system to the students but to faculty members and any staff member on campus," he added.

At present, there are 23 IITs functioning across the country with the student population ranging from 3,000 to 18,000 on each campus besides faculty members, their families and a broader community living in the premises.

"It has been felt that dedicated posts including counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists need to be created within the IITs because unless specific posts are created and funding is earmarked, even contractual appointments are not possible.

"The idea is not a fallout of the recent unfortunate episodes. The proposal was also placed before former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and IIT Gandhinagar is working on a structure for all IITs which includes sanctioned posts for counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists", another IIT Director said.

According to minutes of the IIT Council meeting held last year, the structure, when prepared, will be in accordance with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) guidelines with adequate promotional avenues and provisions for quality assessment from time to time, so that a sustainable and reliable structure can be built.

BITS Pilani Group Vice Chancellor and former IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao has been flagging that problems arising at IITs on this front are because of the "one-size-fits-all approach in IITs" where doors are opened for meritorious students from all backgrounds, but teaching-learning methods are not adapted to address the "heterogeneity".

A National Task Force (NTF) appointed by the Supreme Court had flagged in its interim report that the faculty members across IITs felt ill-equipped to address mental health issues, and 90 per cent lacked proper training to support students with such sensitive concerns.

The panel had quoted responses from 31 centrally funded institutions, including 23 IITs, which showed that although 18 institutes had at least one mental health service provider, only four reported formal training for faculty mentorship programmes, while 10 reported training for peer-support initiatives.

The panel also noted that the term "counsellor" was used inconsistently across institutes, making it hard to assess how many trained mental-health professionals were actually available. The committee is slated to submit its final report by October 31.

IIT Roorkee had earlier this year announced that it has initiated the drafting of a comprehensive mental health policy, setting a precedent for all IITs.

IIT Kharagpur has implemented an initiative under which power blackouts are enforced in the evenings to encourage students to leave electronic devices and talk to each other, in a bid to prevent isolation. The 'Know Your Neighbour' campaign at IIT Guwahati similarly aims to strengthen the bond between peers.

Realigning curriculum, on-campus wellness and counselling hubs, wellness websites and apps, gatekeeper training model and peer support groups are among the other measures taken by various IITs to protect the mental well-being of students and prevent suicides.