Two separate instances of death by suicide – of a woman student from Nepal at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Odisha and an undergraduate student at Ashoka University in Haryana — highlight once again the mental-health challenges across India’s higher education institutions. It also indicates the importance — and inadequacy — of these institutions in keeping pace with the changing needs and aspirations of a multi-ethnic student body. According to reports, the 20-year-old engineering student at KIIT had filed a harassment complaint against a male student on campus. The university had apparently offered counselling to both and let matters rest. This response, as it turns out, was not enough.
As the share of students in higher education increases, fundamental to this change is the need to ensure an inclusive environment that makes students feel heard and valued. More so when in many cases students are young adults moving to campuses and cities far from home, without the reassuring networks of family and friends. That’s why a one-size-fits-all approach to support, whether academic, social, or related to mental health, is unlikely to work. Instead, a more nuanced and personalised engagement with campus life is imperative. Investigations into a spate of student suicides on the IIT-Madras campus between 2022 and 2023, for instance, led its administration to come up with unusual solutions, including a sports quota for athletes. In other centres, a supernumerary quota for women was introduced to tackle gender imbalance. The entire community stands to gain from a campus culture that is collaborative and empathetic, kinder and gentler to tomorrow’s talent.
