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Indian Institutes of Technology are considering creating a proper cadre of mental health professionals who will be engaged to ensure the psychological well-being of students and faculty, according to IIT Directors. Several IITs have been at the centre of controversy this year for student suicides on campus due to different reasons. However, Directors of two IITs confirmed that the plan to create the cadre is not a fallout of the recent suicides but has been deliberated upon for at least two years. While IITs have taken initiatives in the past to address the mental health of students, the death of an IIT Bombay student on September 18, who was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on campus, has triggered protests, bringing back the spotlight on student suicides. The incident came after an IIT Delhi student died by suicide in August, leading to outrage on the campus, and is one of the several such deaths that have occurred across the premier technical institutions of
Thirty-six states and Union territories have set up 53 Tele-MANAS cells to provide mental health services and more than 15.95 lakh calls were handled through the helpline till November 22, Union Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The National Tele-Mental Health Programme (NTMHP) was launched on October 10, 2022, to improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services in the country, he said. Responding to a question, he said the government has established a dedicated Tele-MANAS or Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States cell at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune to extend tele-mental health assistance and support to all armed forces service personnel and their dependents. Armed forces personnel on dialling the Tele-MANAS toll-free helpline number --14416 -- from any part of the country would be connected to the state Tele-MANAS Cell, from where their call would be re-directed to the dedicated Tele-MANAS Cell at t