Nearly 57,000 institutes yet to survey student suicides, mental health on campuses

The Supreme Court has noted in a recent order that around 57,000 higher educational institutes out of 58,000 nationwide have yet to respond to survey questionnaires from the National Task Force, constituted by the Court, to address issues of student suicides and mental well-being on campus. It has directed the Union Government to take up the issue with the institutes.

The National Task Force was constituted by the Court earlier this year in the context of student suicides across higher education institutes, including the likes of the Indian Institutes of Technology, after which the parents of multiple students who had died by suicide approached the Supreme Court of India for directions to address, among other things, caste discrimination on campuses, institutional mechanisms to support students, response of institute administrators, etc.

The petitioners included the parents of Ayush Ashna and Anil Kumar, IIT Delhi students from Scheduled Caste backgrounds who died by suicide in 2023, weeks apart; and also the parents of Dalit students Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, who died by suicide in 2016 and 2019, respectively. While hearing these cases, the Supreme Court had constituted the NTF in March this year.

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In August this year, the NTF launched a website, creating one survey each for students, parents, institutional representatives, mental health professionals, and members of the public.

Top institutes fail to respond

While hearing this matter last week, the Supreme Court of India, in an October 10 order, noted that close to 57,000 institutes were yet to respond to requests to provide the information sought through the surveys, despite the Union government asking them to cooperate with the survey process four times. This included top institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology as well.

The Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan noted their “thorough disappointment” with this in the order, further saying it was “very important” for the institutes to cooperate and join the survey. The Bench, in its order, said it was giving the institutes “one last chance” to 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.”

In the order, the Supreme Court also noted that multiple State and UT governments had not appointed nodal officers of the rank of joint secretary to help with the NTF’s work as directed, observing that this included administrations in Delhi, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, among others, where junior officers were appointed as nodal officers.

The court was also informed that several Scheduled Caste scholars are awaiting fellowship amounts due to them under government schemes. The Additional Solicitor General of India was asked to take instructions in this regard. The official was also asked as to why there had been delays in disbursement.

(Those in distress or having suicidal tendencies could seek help at TeleMANAS-14416 or from any of the numbers found in this link.)