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Nearly one in 11 students surveyed across higher education institutions reported experiencing suicidal thoughts often or very often in the past year, while 15% said they had gone through a prolonged period of distress, low mood or anxiety in the previous six months, according to preliminary findings of a nationwide survey by a Supreme Court-appointed National Task Force (NTF).
The findings, based on responses from more than 2.43 lakh students, are expected to form part of the NTF's final report on student mental health and the prevention of suicides in higher educational institutions. The report is expected to be submitted to the Supreme Court by October 31, 2026.
The figures come amid renewed concern over student deaths at premier institutions, including IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.
The survey found that 34% of students reported feeling like outsiders on their campuses to varying degrees. About 67% of the respondents belonged to the SC, ST and OBC communities, according to the findings reported by PTI.
The survey also found that only 56% of students said they trusted their institution's administration to handle serious issues fairly. About 32% said their institution did not provide counselling services.
These figures suggest that the question before institutions is not merely whether counselling exists, but whether students know about it, trust it and can reach it when they need it.
The task force has cautioned, however, that the survey sample is not representative of the entire student population. A senior official told PTI that several responses, including open-ended answers, were still being analysed and that the observations should therefore be treated as preliminary and tentative.
The NTF's interim work has also recorded concerns relating to caste discrimination, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, language barriers and unequal academic attention.
The Supreme Court's mandate to the task force specifically includes examining factors such as academic pressure, caste and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, financial burden, stigma surrounding mental health and discrimination based on disability, ethnicity and other identities.
The task force has also examined the institutional side of the problem. Its work included surveys of students, faculty, parents, mental-health providers and higher education institutions, apart from visits and consultations.
The Supreme Court recorded that the NTF had conducted 30 meetings at 19 institutional sites across several States.
The institutional findings have raised questions about the availability of professional support. Reporting on the NTF's work has said that more than 70% of surveyed institutions did not have a full-time mental health professional and that fewer than 4% had formal suicide-risk management protocols.
The Supreme Court, while considering the NTF's work, has already directed measures relating to student safety and institutional response.
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Its January 2026 order said higher educational institutions should report student suicides or unnatural deaths to the authorities and submit annual reports to the relevant regulators. The Court also directed that residential institutions have access to qualified medical assistance around the clock.
The Court's directions also addressed vacancies in higher education institutions, including reserved posts for marginalised and underrepresented communities, reflecting the wider institutional concerns examined by the task force.
The survey does not provide a count of suicides in 2026 alone, and its findings should not be read as establishing that the reported distress or suicidal thoughts resulted from any single campus condition.
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