Featuring voices of Hiral Krishnatray, Shreya Mishra, Navpreet Kaur, Dr.Arshi Ahad and Chetan — students and interns associated with Nada India Foundation
The latest death of an MSc Physics student at IIT Delhi has once again brought student well-being into public attention. According to police, the 31-year-old student died on August 22 after allegedly jumping from the sixth floor of a campus building. Investigators are examining his phone, institute records and counselling records; no suicide note had been recovered at the time of the Indian Express report.
This tragedy comes after other deeply distressing incidents involving students at leading educational institutions. In July 2025, the death of 21-year-old IIT Kharagpur student Ritam Mondal was reported as the fourth unnatural student death at the institute that year. Sharda University in Greater Noida also witnessed two student deaths in 2025, with investigations raising questions around academic stress, institutional communication, student support and alleged harassment.
We should be careful not to reduce any individual tragedy to a single explanation. But we must not miss the larger question: are our educational institutions creating environments in which young people can ask for help before a crisis becomes irreversible?
As young people and emerging professionals connected with the Nada Young India Network for Good Health, we believe this is where the conversation must move—from pressure to prevention.
🌱 A Campus Is More Than a Classroom
“Behind the glory of IITs, NITs and AIIMS, there is an unstated epidemic: loneliness, trauma, academic burnout and silent despair.”
— Hiral Krishnatray, Nada Good Health Champion
India rightly celebrates its premier educational institutions. But excellence cannot be measured only through rankings, research papers, examination scores or placements.
A healthy institution must also ask:
Do students feel that they belong?
Can they fail without feeling that they have failed as human beings?
Can they approach a teacher without fear?
Can they say “I am not okay” without being labelled weak?
Is there someone who notices when they suddenly withdraw?
These questions belong at the heart of campus planning—not at the end of a crisis.
🧠 Mental Health Should Be Built Into Campus Life
“Therapy must be de-stigmatised and integrated into student life.”
— Dr. Arshi Ahad, Intern, ICMR & Nada India Foundation
Counselling cannot remain a service that students discover only when they are already in serious distress.
We need a continuum of support:
Awareness → Peer Support → Early Identification → Counselling → Specialist Referral → Follow-up
Some practical measures include:
- accessible and confidential counselling;
- trained peer-support circles;
- faculty and hostel staff sensitisation;
- mental-health orientation for new students;
- trauma-informed and empathetic teaching practices;
- spaces for recreation, creativity and social connection;
- clear referral pathways for specialist care;
- regular, voluntary well-being conversations.
The objective should not be to create a campus that constantly watches students.
It should be to create a campus where students know who will listen when they need help.
🧍🏽♀️ Discrimination Can Become an Invisible Burden
“Caste, class, language and gender-based discrimination does not always shout—it adds up, and then it overwhelms.”
— Hiral Krishnatray
Student well-being cannot be separated from dignity and inclusion.
Discrimination, humiliation, bullying, exclusion and social isolation may not always appear in a mental-health screening form.
Therefore, healthy campuses need:
independent grievance mechanisms + student participation + accountability + safe reporting + institutional responsiveness.
The death of an individual student should not become an excuse for speculation. But every tragedy should encourage institutions to examine whether students have meaningful avenues to report discrimination, harassment or distress.
🧑🏽🏫 Faculty Are Part of the Prevention System
“Not all students who miss a deadline are lazy—some are simply surviving.”
— Shreya Mishra, Intern, Nada India Foundation
A teacher may be the first person to notice a change.
A student who suddenly stops attending classes.
A student whose academic performance changes dramatically.
Someone who withdraws from friends.
Someone who stops participating in activities they previously enjoyed.
These signs do not automatically mean mental illness or suicidal risk.
But they may be a reason to check in rather than simply penalise.
Faculty training should therefore include basic understanding of:
- distress signals;
- supportive communication;
- referral;
- confidentiality;
- boundaries;
- crisis response;
- inclusive teaching.
Empathy is not an alternative to academic standards. It makes academic standards more humane.
💔 A Student Is a Person Before a Performance
“Every student deserves to feel that their life matters and that help is always within reach.”
— Navpreet Kaur, Nada Young India Network CAT Member, Punjab
The current IIT Delhi case reminds us why we must resist simplistic explanations.
We do not yet know the complete circumstances surrounding the student's death. Police are still investigating and examining available records.
That uncertainty itself teaches us something important:
We should not wait for a complete explanation after a tragedy before strengthening prevention.
Prevention begins while the student is alive, attending classes, living in a hostel, struggling with relationships, worrying about examinations, questioning their career, or simply feeling lonely.
📱 Technology Can Support—But Cannot Replace—Human Connection
Digital platforms can help institutions offer:
- voluntary well-being check-ins;
- anonymous feedback;
- appointment systems;
- information about available support;
- reminders and follow-up;
- early referral.
But technology should not become a surveillance system.
A questionnaire cannot replace a conversation.
An algorithm cannot replace empathy.
A dashboard cannot replace a trusted human being.
Digital tools should help people reach people—not make institutions believe that monitoring is the same as caring.
👨👩👧 Parents Also Need Support
Students do not live only inside campuses.
Families can be a powerful protective factor—but family expectations can also become a source of pressure.
Parents need opportunities to learn about:
- career uncertainty;
- changing aspirations;
- emotional communication;
- academic pressure;
- digital behaviour;
- substance use;
- mental-health concerns;
- when and how to seek professional help.
The message should be simple:
A child does not have to become what we imagined in order to remain worthy of our love.
🌱 From Healthy Campus to Healthy Community
The Nada Young India Network for Good Health, with the involvement of NAPSWI and Nada India Foundation, is working towards a broader vision of Healthy Campuses.
Our approach is not limited to suicide prevention.
It includes:
mental well-being + substance-use prevention + tobacco control + peer support + social connection + life skills + youth leadership + community engagement.
The recent “Unmasking the DATE” dialogue with NAPSWI Student Ambassadors from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir reinforced this approach.
DATE — Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco & Education — gives young people a language through which to discuss what is often hidden.
And “unmasking” means creating spaces where students do not always have to pretend that everything is fine.
🤝 From Pressure to Prevention
Our campuses should move from a reactive model:
Crisis → Emergency → Investigation → Response
towards a preventive model:
Belonging → Participation → Early Support → Connection → Referral → Recovery
A healthy campus is not one where nobody struggles.
It is one where struggle does not have to remain invisible.
It is not one where every problem is solved by a counsellor.
It is one where students, peers, faculty, families and professionals know how to respond.
It is not a campus without pressure.
It is a campus with protective relationships and pathways to support.
💚 Our Call to Action
As young people and emerging professionals associated with the Nada Young India Network for Good Health, we believe it is time to move:
From awareness to action.
From monitoring to meaningful connection.
From stigma to support.
From crisis response to prevention.
From individual blame to shared responsibility.
Every student deserves more than an examination hall, a hostel room and a placement package.
They deserve belonging, dignity, purpose, friendship, support and the freedom to ask for help.
Good Health. Safe Spaces. Empowered Students.
Because education without empathy is incomplete education.
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