Academic pressure, career anxiety & homework top stressors for students: Report

“This is no longer a silent problem. It is a visible and urgent crisis,” said Ganesh Kohli, Founder of the IC3 Movement. “Almost half of our students remain unsure of where to seek help, and career anxiety continues to steal their sleep and peace of mind. Mental health cannot be treated as optional. Every school must make counseling part of its core infrastructure.”

Emotional distress and gender divide

The report highlights deep gender disparities. Girls reported higher levels of persistent sadness and were more likely to internalise stress without seeking professional help. Non-binary students reported the lowest overall well-being. In most cases, distressed students turned to friends first — peers who often lack the tools or training to provide meaningful support.

Career anxiety and sleep deprivation

Uncertainty about future prospects emerged as one of the top three stressors. Without adequate career counseling, many students feel adrift, compounding academic pressure. For senior students, this manifests in chronic sleep deprivation, with three out of four Class 12 students failing to get the recommended 7–8 hours of sleep on school nights.

The conference, themed “Counseling as a Culture”, brought together more than 1,500 educators, school leaders, counselors, and university representatives from 95 countries. Discussions underscored the need to normalise counseling within schools, train teachers as gatekeepers, and create systemic support structures.

The IC3 Conference featured over 35 expert-led sessions, including an Inner Child Workshop for educators to reflect on their formative experiences. Keynotes came from Boman Irani, Devdutt Pattanaik, and Gauranga Das, while the Presidential Forum included voices like Ratna Pathak Shah, Soha Ali Khan, and Ronnie Screwvala, all advocating collective responsibility for student well-being.

The Supreme Court’s recent call for stronger school-based counseling frameworks added weight to the conversations. As IC3 enters its 10th year, it also announced IC3 On Demand — a customisable model to help institutions embed counseling practices — and expanded IC3 Regional Conferences to support localised student needs.