Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Monday directed officials to prepare a framework to "safeguard the mental and emotional wellbeing of students" at all levels, from school to higher education institutions". Pradhan issued the directions at a meeting on the mental wellness of students and the need to adopt zero tolerance towards discrimination in educational institutions. Senior officials from school and higher education department, CBSE, AICTE, UGC attended the meeting, the Ministry of Education said in a statement. "The framework will institutionalize safeguards and mechanisms that can ensure comprehensive protection to students from any threat or assault- physical, social, discriminatory, cultural, and linguistic; causing psychological distress leading to self-harming/self-destructive tendencies among students," the statement said. A number of suicides in the IITs have triggered a debate on the state of mental health and caste-based discrimination in the country's higher educational institutes. Last Tuesday, a B Tech student at IIT Madras died by suicide. In February, a second year research scholar also ended his life at the IIT Madras campus, while a first year student of chemical engineering died by suicide at IIT Bombay. In total, 33 students have died by suicide across the Indian Instiutes of Technolgy (IITs) since 2018, shows data presented in the Parliament last week by the Ministry of Education. The IITs account for over half of the suicides (61), followed by the NITs (24) and IIMs (4). The data, which cover the 2018-2023 period, was shared in response to a question by Congress' Rajya Sabha MP L Hanumanthaiah. "Academic stress, family reasons, personal reasons, mental health issues, etc. are some of the reasons for such suicide cases," according to the written response by Minister of State Education Subhas Sarkar. The proposed framework, said the ministry, will include the creation of inclusive, integrative and non-discriminatory environment. "The ninister has also asked to invite suggestions from all the stakeholders through online medium. He touched upon various subjects such as gender equality, caste sensitivity, academic ease of pressure, robust system of counselling," added the ministry.
