IIT B’bay students demand reforms in mental wellness centre

IIT Bombay students rate the Student Wellness Centre's mental health support as average, calling for reforms and increased representation for better services.

MUMBAI: IIT Bombay students have expressed only average satisfaction with the institute’s Student Wellness Centre (SWC), a body that offers mental health support, including counselling and workshops, to students. According to a recent survey conducted by ‘Insight’, the institute’s official student media body, the survey, which gathered responses from 124 students, revealed that only 35% of them found the service satisfactory.

The survey by 'Insight' claimed that IIT Bombay students called for increased representation in SWC, suggesting that the institute could adopt a model similar to IIT Kanpur’s Institute Counselling Service, where students play a more active role in shaping mental health initiatives. (HT file image)

Meanwhile, 34.1% reported no improvement in their mental health despite attending counselling sessions, and 16.3% stated that their issues persisted or had even worsened. The centre received an overall rating of 3.27 out of 5, leading to demands for reforms in its approach to mental health support.

The survey also examined the reasons that students sought help from SWC. The findings showed that 64.5% of respondents attended counselling sessions for interpersonal relationship issues, 53.7% sought help for academic-related stress, while 31.4% reached out due to feelings of isolation.

In addition to individual counselling, SWC offers outreach programs such as mental well-being events and the presence of counsellors in student hostels. However, engagement in these initiatives has been low. Only 9.2% of respondents had attended the events organised by SWC, while 51.3% were aware of them but did not participate.

In response to these findings, the survey highlighted several areas that require improvement. The article in ‘Insight’ says, ‘Students have called for increased representation in SWC, suggesting that IIT Bombay could adopt a model similar to IIT Kanpur’s Institute Counselling Service, where students play a more active role in shaping mental health initiatives. The introduction of group therapy and peer counselling, which have been effective in universities like Harvard and MIT, were also recommended as a way to expand the available support mechanisms. Additionally, concerns about privacy and confidentiality were raised. To address these concerns, students suggested that SWC establish a publicly available confidentiality policy similar to Stanford University’s Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to build greater trust in the system.’