TISS Mumbai: More students seek help for relationship woes than studies; women prefer text, show helpline data

Young women are reluctant to make voice calls for mental health support but are more comfortable texting with experts when they are in distress, according to data from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai's helpline 'iCall'. The data also shows that the concerns related to relationships trump academic stress among young adults, while self-harm has emerged as a key coping mechanism among those facing mental health issues.

Female callers accounted for barely 10% of more than 12,000 sessions conducted through iCall's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program Support or 'CHAMPS' – a phone-based helpline service – for youngsters aged less than 25 between April 2023 and October 2025. However, an analysis of counselling sessions conducted through the helpline's chat-based service ‘ReYou’ (short for Rebuilding Youth) during roughly the same period shows an almost equal split along the gender line – 51% female, 48% male.

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TISS Mumbai: Helpline, mental health services

iCALL (an acronym for Initiating Concern for All) is a field action project run by the premier institute's school of human ecology since 2012. As part of this initiative, TISS offers four multilingual mental health support services nationwide and even abroad.

Two of these programmes geared towards the youth, CHAMPS and ReYou, began around three years ago. While the former is run in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the latter is supported by Zoom Cares, the philanthropic arm of Zoom Communications, known for its popular video conferencing app. iCall receives funding from other donors, such as Mariwala Health Initiative, as well.

Both services have significantly increased their coverage since they were launched in 2023. CHAMPS has so far received 27,706 genuine calls, of which 12,458 were made by members of the target demographics – those aged below 25. ReYou chatline, on the other hand, has facilitated 10,387 sessions, with 325 monthly calls being attended on average. The chat volume nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024, and continues to rise at the rate of 14% per month.

The institute has attributed the rise to the enhanced awareness of the services as well as the growing need for mental health care. "The growth is definitely a function of publicity and outreach efforts, as well as the mental health needs of youngsters. We are an established service now and TISS is widely recognised for its impactful social engagement work since its inception. At iCALL, we put out regular posts on social media, because that's where the young people are. We are also a listed partner of Google and Meta. Special efforts are made to reach the people who don't have access to social media. We have partnerships with all UN organisations as well as several academic institutes," said Aparna Joshi, assistant professor at TISS and project director of iCALL.

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TISS Mumbai Helpline: Most calls on ‘emotional distress’

While ReYou chat services are currently only available in English, counselling through CHAMPS is offered in five languages – Hindi, English, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil. Hindi speakers make up most of the callers, 95.31%, to be precise. The callers hail from the states across the nation, and neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. "[This] reflects successful reach to tier 2 and tier 3 cities with limited mental health infrastructure," reads a report on the helpline.

In CHAMPS sessions, 'emotional distress' has emerged as the topmost concern, accounting for around 39% of calls, followed by 'non-suicidal self-injury' (9.79%) and relationship issues (5.68%). 'Education and career' was the specific theme for a mere 3.05% of calls.

Joshi underscored that while self-harm is a growing concern among young individuals, it needs to be further studied as research in this area is still at a nascent stage in India.

“Self-harm or non suicidal self injury is definitely a rising concern, especially among adolescents and young individuals. It is often without suicidal intent and may not necessarily be intended to end one’s life. Young people may find it difficult to manage stress, strong emotions and pain. Self-harm is one of the ways of coping with them. Self-harm and the pain associated with it may sound difficult to comprehend. But sometimes it is a manner of communication or a way of venting out. It tends to provide a sense of immediate relief in the short term, although definitely not constructive and helpful in the long run. Young individuals need to be supported in finding helpful and constructive ways of coping with their life difficulties,” she said.

ReYou, which is publicised as a student suicide prevention helpline, saw 21.5% crisis-related sessions, where 41% chats dealt with suicide ideation. Among the remaining non-crisis help sessions, 23% were related to emotional distress, followed by relationship concerns (9%), economic concerns (4%) and academic concerns (4%).

"The distress among youths is rooted in many of the structural problems of society. There are issues of gender, caste, class, religion and other constructs at play. Besides providing counselling, we also refer the callers to other on-ground resources, thanks to our vast offline network," said Joshi.

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. Those in distress or having suicidal thoughts or tendencies could seek help and counselling by calling 9820466726 or visiting AASRA’s official website or can call iCALL on 9152987821.