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4h ago

IITs Move to Create Permanent Mental‑Health Cadre

IIT leaders propose an RCI-aligned structure to standardize counselling roles, create promotion paths for staff, enable regular quality checks across 23 campuses.

Representative image
In an email sent to students after the rescheduled mid-semester examinations were conducted smoothly over this weekend, the administration said an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the student’s death was underway. The institute is also reforming committees dealing with student matters to ensure equal student representation (Hindustan Times)

Overview

  • IIT directors are shifting from planning to formalizing a permanent cadre of counsellors, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists to provide sanctioned, funded posts across all 23 campuses.
  • A Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force interim report found about 90% of faculty feel untrained to handle student mental-health issues, highlighting gaps in faculty mentoring and role clarity.
  • IIT Bombay has begun short-term steps to boost care by recruiting 30 temporary counsellors and running a 24/7 Wellness Response Team with on-call psychiatrists for crisis support.
  • The IIT Council and IIT Gandhinagar are drafting the RCI-aligned model to set sanctioned posts, promotion avenues and periodic quality assessments so services match the scale of campus populations.
  • Campuses are using temporary fixes now — policy drafting at Roorkee, social-connection drives at Kharagpur and Guwahati — and a unified cadre could change day-to-day access to counselling for thousands of students, staff and faculty.