Member Article

Sudhir Angur : India’s education system paying no heed to mental

India has always been scrambling to match up top-level universities across the world. However, the country’s education system overlooks a distinguishing feature of these universities, i.e., they give preference to student welfare, especially mental health. Says Sudhir Angur, Vice Chancellor of Alliance University, “Indian students enrolled in foreign universities, can feel the stark contrast in college healthcare.”

In India, educational institutions are ill-equipped to cope with a crisis like mental health. The counselors appointed by colleges, often blame students for having adjustment disorder. They also rebuke the students, and say they should be ashamed of wasting their parent’s hard-earned money, or that they are privileged children so they should not have issues anyway. In reality, veritable issues, such as substance abuse or depression are neglected as typical college despairs.

Depression has become the world’s biggest problem, and it is often observed that the youth is majorly vulnerable. “If a student causes self-harm, parents and college administrators tend to shift blames on each other, while the victim suffers,” adds Sudhir Angur. Majority of the students are unable to figure out what they are going through – academic pressure comes out to be the only valid reason. Thus, people get surprised when a bright student takes to self-harm.

Establishing confidential and professional psychotherapy centres for students gives an opportunity to collectively address mental healthcare in our education system. This exercise must entail listening and understanding what a student has to say. These centres will help students articulate their needs and encourage more such intercessions in the public realm.

It is need of the hour to appoint experienced psychologists who can deal with the youth and sensitize prevailing issues like substance dependence, sexuality, anxieties or woeful life events. The therapy should be delinked from academics and family, and only focus on health and privacy of the person, adds Sudhir Angur.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adam Bennett .