IIT-Bombay student body’s survey says only 20% attended counselling sessions by Student Wellness Centre
According to Insight, this highlights the need for better awareness and clearing the stigma behind seeking professional help on matters concerning mental health
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The respondents included 70.2 percent male and 29 percent female, and the rest non-binary (Archive)A recent survey report published by Insight, the student media body of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, has revealed that only 124 out of 600 or 20 per cent of the respondents have attended a counselling session provided by the Student Wellness Centre (SWC), a dedicated centre catering to students’ mental health.
Out of remaining 476 respondents, 245 felt the need to seek professional support for issues related to mental wellbeing but they never reached out to SWC because 51 percent felt that their issues were not severe enough to justify a visit, 27.3 percent were concerned about a potential lack of anonymity and 27.8 percent felt embarrassed to discuss their problems with a counsellor.
According to Insight, this highlights the need for better awareness and clearing the stigma behind seeking professional help on matters concerning mental health. “Our aim with this article is also to encourage students to seek support whenever required. We hope our article leads to a better understanding of and improved experiences with the support provided by the institute through SWC and other available avenues,” states the Insight article.
The SWC at IIT Bombay is a dedicated centre to help students navigate mental wellbeing issues such as academic stress, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, feelings of discrimination or isolation among others. This survey by Insight was circulated in September 2024. Among 600 respondents, 397 were undergraduate and 203 were postgraduate. The respondents included 70.2 percent male and 29 percent female, and the rest non-binary.
The SWC also offers services such as workshops, events etc. on mental wellbeing. But only 9.2 percent respondents of the survey had attended such events, whereas 51.3percent respondents did not attend those even as they were aware of such events. Among 124 students who sought help from SWC, 64.5 percent attended for problems related to interpersonal relationships, 53.7 percent sought help for academic-related issues, while 31.4 percent attended sessions after getting feelings of isolation.
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