A system that ignores the mind while training the intellect is not education. It is exploitation. Let us ensure no student has to die to remind us of that
How many more young students must we lose before we begin to understand that mental health is just as urgent as physical health? A promising student from BITS Pilani Goa is dead. The post-mortem has ruled out suicide. Instead, it revealed that the student was on antidepressant medication and died choking on his own vomit while asleep. The medical report cites lack of adequate mental healthcare. Three out of five recent deaths in BITS Goa have now been linked to mental health neglect. But this is not about BITS alone. This is about a broken education system, one that builds tech parks but not trauma care, installs CCTV cameras but not support counsellors and pushes performance while silencing pain.
The reflex response to a student’s death is often: Was it suicide? That question is reductionist. The real question is: Did the system fail him? In this case, it did. The student was under mental health treatment. The absence of consistent care – especially in a high-pressure environment – proved fatal. As per Dr Madhu Ghodkirekar, HOD of Forensic Medicine, three of the five student deaths in BITS Goa have been linked to mental health neglect. That is 60% of all deaths. Shouldn’t that set off alarm bells? Educational institutions cannot continue to feign ignorance. They are not just centres of learning. They are guardians of life.
We have normalised student distress. We call anxiety a “phase”. We call burnout “weakness”. We hide therapy under whispered tones. And we still treat counselling as optional – while making attendance, exams and GPAs mandatory. Here are some chilling realities: India has only 0.75 psychiatrists per 1,00,000 people. The WHO recommends at least 3. Goa has a better health infrastructure than many states, but its student-counsellor ratio in colleges remains poor. Most institutions do not have even one full-time psychologist. Schools and colleges rarely follow a structured mental health curriculum. LGBTQ+ youth, students with disabilities and first-generation learners face invisible emotional violence, often without any redressal mechanism. This isn’t a mental health gap. This is a mental health crisis. Recognising the urgency, the Supreme Court of India issued 15 binding guidelines in August 2024 to prevent suicide and promote mental health in educational institutions. These are not optional. They are now a legal duty for all schools, colleges and universities.
Here are the directives every policymaker, principal and education official should immediately implement: The 15 Supreme Court guidelines on mental health in education are 1) Mental health education must be mandatory. Curricula must include mental health awareness, coping mechanisms and help-seeking behaviour. 2) Mandatory appointment of full-time counsellors. At least one trained mental health professional must be present on campus and available throughout the working day. 3) 24/7 helpline linkage. Institutions must ensure students have access to emergency mental health support, via in-house or affiliated services. 4) Gatekeeper training for faculty. Teachers and staff must be trained to identify distress and respond with empathy, not disciplinary action. 5) Mental health leave policy. Students must be able to take leave for psychological reasons without stigma or loss of academic standing. 6) Peer support and anti-bullying frameworks. Create student-led safe spaces and strong anti-bullying systems, particularly during first-year transitions. 7) Confidential grievance cells. Establish a safe mechanism for students to report psychological harassment or unsafe campus environments. 8) Transparency about mental health services. Information about available counselling, helplines and wellness resources must be published on all official platforms. 9) Zero tolerance towards ragging, harassment and humiliation. This includes verbal abuse, academic intimidation and social exclusion. 10) Special support during academic stress periods. Exam seasons and result days should trigger proactive outreach and psychological first aid readiness. 11) Annual mental health audit institutions must monitor mental health practices, outcomes and service quality. 12) Inclusion of marginalised voices. Special attention should be given to LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities and those facing caste or class-based exclusion. 13) Post-trauma response systems. After any student suicide or critical mental health event, deploy crisis intervention and post-vention care. 14) Data and reporting standards. Collect anonymised data to track patterns of distress, dropout and care-seeking behaviour. 15) Integration with national mental health programmes. Establish partnerships with the District Mental Health Programme and Tele-Manas network for referrals.
The Directorate of Education and Directorate of Higher Education in Goa must urgently: Issue circulars to all affiliated schools and colleges enforcing these 15 directives, allocate funds to hire professional counsellors and peer mentors, coordinate with Goa University and private universities to implement mental health audits, partner with local NGOs for outreach and training and prioritise vulnerable areas like hostels, ragging-prone zones and high-stress academic departments.
What if our colleges were ranked not just on placements and infrastructure – but on how many students felt safe to ask for help? What if we stopped measuring success by job offers and started asking: Did they feel they belonged? A system that ignores the mind while training the intellect is not education. It is exploitation. Let us ensure no student has to die to remind us of that.
(Peter F Borges is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the D D Kosambi School of Social Sciences and Behavioural Studies, Goa University.)
