Connect with youth who fail NEET, JEE, UPSC: Parliament panel to health ministry on student suicides

NEW DELHI : A parliamentary committee on Friday recommended that the union health ministry make provisions for mental counselling of youth who fail to clear competitive exams such as those for medicine (NEET UG), engineering (JEE Main, JEE Advanced) and government jobs (UPSC, SSC) to prevent suicides. The committee has noted that suicides by students “hardly caught anyone's attention” and the incidents were “dealt with on a case-to-case basis".

The department-related parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare also expressed its pain to observe that students and unemployed youth accounted for the highest number of suicides in India in 2021, the latest statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB report 2021).

During the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, education ministry informed the Rajya sabha tha higher education institutions under central government saw 98 students suicides and 33,979 dropouts in 5 years since 2018.

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Students suicide

According to the 31-member panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, “feeling hopeless and low self-esteem pushes a person to take extreme steps to end life".

The panel used the NCRB 2021 report for its analysis and found that “while more students committed suicide than farmers, the latter's suicides were termed a national crisis. However, suicides by students hardly caught anyone's attention and were dealt with on a case-to-case basis".

NCRB: Student, youth suicide

Health ministry informed the panel that it has set up a 24/7 helpline to provide psycho-social support, by mental health professionals, to the entire affected population, divided into different target groups – children, adult, elderly, women and healthcare workers. It is among the several initiatives taken by the ministry to provide psycho-social support to overcome the impacts of Covid-19 and related lockdowns.

The committee has recommended the health ministry to make provision under its 24/7 helpline to telephonically connect with youths who fail to qualify for competitive exams like Union Public Service Commission’s Civil Services Examination (UPSC-CSE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) by few marks and counsel them against ending their lives by suicides.

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“The government should prioritise mental health awareness and education campaigns to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health issues by conducting awareness programs in schools and colleges, providing information on available mental health resources, and promoting open discussions on mental well-being,” the panel has recommended.

According to an analysis of NCRB reports, the number of student suicides in India rose by 27% over the five years from 9,478 in 2016 to 13,089 in 2021. India’s “coaching capital” Kota witnessed 15 cases of suicides in 2022 and 17 case till August 2023.

Mental health of students

The panel has observed that there is a lack of comparable data and evidence on the mental health problems affecting children, adolescents and young people.

In July 2020, the education ministry launched Manodarpan initiative to provide psychosocial support to students and teachers for their mental health and well-being.

The committee has recommended that a dedicated cadre of school counsellors in all schools under the Manodarpan initiative should be developed for mental health and well-being of teachers and students. “School management committees should be encouraged to have inclusive learning spaces focusing on students' social and emotional learning,” it said.

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The committee has also recommended a post-Covid-19 mental health survey to assess the prevalence and severity of mental health disorders among the Indian population. “Such a survey will provide valuable insights into the demographic groups and regions most affected by the pandemic's mental health consequences,” it said.

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