As student suicides remain a growing concern, a Supreme Court-appointed panel examining student mental health has found that about 39 per cent of surveyed students worry that their education may not lead to stable or meaningful work.
The National Task Force’s (NTF) interim report on student mental health and suicide prevention found that about 39 per cent of students surveyed worried, at least sometimes, whether their academic choices would lead to stable or meaningful employment. The NTF surveyed more than 243,000 undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students across higher educational institutions (HEIs), with Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class students comprising 67 per cent of the sample.
The report, however, cautioned that the sample was not nationally representative and was skewed towards responses from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka. The panel conducted field visits and stakeholder consultations at institutions including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
40% unsure of career opportunities
The report noted that uncertainty about future employment prospects is likely to contribute to distress among students. It found that approximately 36 per cent reported feeling uncertain, at least sometimes or more often, about whether they had chosen the right academic path, while about 39 per cent of surveyed students were uncertain whether their chosen field of study would translate into stable or meaningful work.
The report reveals that social sciences and humanities students, comprising 17 per cent of the sample, reported employment-related concerns linked to hierarchies of disciplinary value. They expressed that their syllabi were not aligned with industry requirements. Those pursuing humanities courses in technical institutions reported that their disciplines were referred to as “service courses” during meetings, resulting in fewer resources and limited placement opportunities.
Uneven access to mental health care
The survey highlighted limited access to mental health support across HEIs, with only 35 per cent of surveyed institutions providing access to mental health service providers for emotional and psychological support. Notably, 65 per cent of institutions lacked access to any mental health service providers and nearly three-fourths of HEIs did not have a full-time mental health professional on campus.
On the basis of a consolidated dataset provided by the University Grants Commission (UGC), covering 1,456 HEIs across 33 states and Union Territories, the NTF found that Ladakh and Mizoram reported no dedicated counsellors in their higher education institutions. The report, however, cautioned that the term “counsellor” was used inconsistently by institutions, and in some cases referred to faculty members, placement coordinators, academic advisers or committee members rather than trained mental health professionals.
Student suicide trends
The report highlighted a rise in suicide rates among young people aged 15 to 29 years. Drawing on data from the Sample Registration System of the Registrar General of India, it noted that the suicide rate for this age group increased from 16.4 per 100,000 population in 2016 to 17.4 in 2022. The increase was particularly significant among young males, whose suicide rate rose to 21.3 from 16.4 during the period, while the rate among young females declined to 13.9 from 16.3.
The report also identified Jharkhand and Bihar as leading states when student suicides were considered as a proportion of all suicides. In Jharkhand, student suicides accounted for a particularly high share of female suicides reported in the state. It further pointed to patterns of suicide clusters in certain institutions and regions, citing instances of multiple suicide or accidental death cases reported in recent years at educational institutions such as BITS Pilani’s Goa campus and IIT Kharagpur.
According to the findings, 154,046 college students aged 18 to 25 years contacted the Government of India’s 24×7 Tele MANAS mental health helpline between October 2022 and October 2025. Of these, 5,642 calls, or around 4 per cent, were related to suicidal concerns.
Limitations of NCRB suicide data
The NTF report discussed the limitations of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for analysing student suicides. According to the NTF analysis of NCRB suicide data, it states that “Some basic data is provided by age and gender, by professional status, by educational attainment and by cause of suicide. In the absence of unit level data, it is not possible to distinguish proportions of students in these Groups”. NCRB records “student” suicides as a broad category and does not separately identify those enrolled in colleges or universities and while 1.5 per cent of all suicides are attributed to unemployment, this figure covers all age groups and professions rather than students specifically.
According to the analysis, states recording high overall numbers of suicides, such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, also report high numbers of student suicides. However, because these states have larger total suicide counts, student suicides account for less than 10 per cent of all suicides reported in these states.
The writer is a 2026 batch Business Standard-Rahul Khullar intern
