Students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) largest school—School of languages, literature and culture--- have requested the administration to constitute a committee to address mental health issues among scholars, citing “unprecedented rise” in the cases of anxiety and stress.
The student representative from the school had last week wrote a letter to the dean, requesting him to constitute a committee that can organise regular counselling sessions for the students. “The student community of School of languages, literature and culture has seen an unprecedented rise in the mental issues over the past years. Several students are suffering from anxiety and depression that is affecting their academic and social engagements and often drives them to extreme measures,” said Ainie Naqvi, the councillor of the school for the JNU students’ union (JNUSU), in the letter.
The councillor said the school has only one mental health counsellor at its health centre. “It is not sufficient to address the wide range of mental health issues. You are requested to kindly take note of this urgent situation and arrange for a mental health committee and counselling sessions for the students,” Naqvi said in her letter.
Many students at the school said the environment on the campus has changed after a student committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in the library in May. “That was not the first incident. Before that one more student from the school of languages had tried to commit suicide. Though more mental health counsellors are required in all the schools of the university, School of languages being the largest needs some more such counsellors urgently,” said Niyati, second-year MA student at the school.
{{/usCountry}}Many students at the school said the environment on the campus has changed after a student committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in the library in May. “That was not the first incident. Before that one more student from the school of languages had tried to commit suicide. Though more mental health counsellors are required in all the schools of the university, School of languages being the largest needs some more such counsellors urgently,” said Niyati, second-year MA student at the school.
{{/usCountry}}Syed Ainul Hasan, dean of the school, said he has received the request and will discuss the issue in the upcoming chairpersons’ meeting. “We have to discuss the issue with the chairpersons of all the centres under the school. We need to explore what all measures can be taken to address the issue. It’s not just the case of our school. It’s happening across the university. We need to start a dialogue,” he said.
Bhooma Krishnan, a city-based psychologist, said it’s very important to balance the counsellor and student ratio in the educational institutions. “It’s absolutely required to have sufficient number of professionally trained counsellors as per the strength of students in schools, colleges and universities so that they can give proper time to each and every student. The students need access for face-to-face counselling rather than depending on telephonic or online help,” she said.