Plans are under discussion at Indian Institutes of Technology to establish a dedicated workforce of mental health practitioners tasked with supporting the psychological welfare of both students and staff, directors of the institutions have indicated. Two directors of IITs told reporters that the proposal to establish the cadre had been under discussion for at least two years before the recent student suicides occurred.
A number of IITs faced scrutiny over the course of the year after student deaths by suicide were recorded across their campuses, with the circumstances varying from case to case. On 18 September, a student at IIT Bombay was found dead in his hostel room, and the circumstances of that death prompted protests across the campus while reigniting a wider public conversation about student suicides at the IITs — a concern that had persisted even as the institutions worked to expand mental health provisions. The death of an IIT Delhi student in August — which also drew protests across that campus — forms part of a broader pattern of student fatalities recorded at leading technical institutions around the country over the past several years.
The proposal stands on its own footing, unconnected to the incidents that drew attention in the period just passed. An IIT director told a news channel that while some institutions had brought in third-party applications and others maintained on-campus counsellors, neither arrangement adequately matched the scale of student populations, prompting an ongoing search for a durable, long-term model; the director further noted that mental health had occupied institutional attention for several years, with discussions running for at least two years around establishing a dedicated cadre of mental health professionals whose remit would extend support not only to students but also to faculty and other campus staff.
Across all 23 Indian Institutes of Technology — institutions whose campuses collectively shelter student populations ranging from 3,000 to 18,000, alongside teaching staff, their households, and broader residential communities — a case has been made for dedicated mental health appointments, with those close to the matter pointing out that the absence of formally approved positions and protected funding lines leaves even short-term contractual hiring beyond practical reach.
A proposal was put before former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while IIT Gandhinagar has been developing a framework for all IITs that would establish dedicated posts for counsellors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, according to another IIT director. Minutes from the IIT Council's meeting the previous year recorded that any framework developed would need to align with Rehabilitation Council of India guidelines, incorporate pathways for professional advancement, and build in mechanisms for periodic quality review.
A government disclosure to Parliament earlier in the year outlined that dedicated mental health infrastructure — drawing on full-time and visiting counsellors, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists where arrangements allowed — had been put in place at every IIT, IIM, NIT, and IIIT campus, with the ministry further noting that each of those institutions offered counselling access to its student body.
An interim report from the Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force found that IIT faculty broadly lacked the preparation needed to assist students dealing with mental health concerns, with nine in ten reporting no adequate training in that area. Of the 31 centrally funded institutions surveyed — among them 23 IITs — 18 had at least one mental health service provider in place, yet structured faculty mentorship programmes carried formal training backing at just four of those institutions, while peer-support initiatives had received comparable training investment at ten. Inconsistent application of the term "counsellor" across institutes left the panel unable to draw reliable conclusions about how many qualified mental health practitioners were actually on hand. A deadline of 31 October has been set for the committee to deliver its completed report.
V Ramgopal Rao, who serves as Vice Chancellor of the BITS Pilani Group and previously headed IIT Delhi, has pointed out that a uniform pedagogical framework across IITs admits students from diverse backgrounds without adjusting teaching and learning methods to account for that diversity — a gap he identifies as a root cause of the difficulties those institutions now face.
A mental health policy covering all IITs was being drafted by IIT Roorkee, the institution having taken up the work earlier in the year as a model for the wider network of institutes. Scheduled evening power cuts at IIT Kharagpur form part of a campus-wide effort to draw students away from screens and into face-to-face conversation, with reducing social isolation as the stated aim. A programme called 'Know Your Neighbour', running at IIT Guwahati, works toward building closer connections among students on campus.
Across various IITs, a range of additional efforts has taken shape — from redesigned course content and on-campus counselling and wellness facilities to digital wellness tools, gatekeeper training programmes, and peer support networks — all directed at safeguarding student mental health and reducing the incidence of suicide.
