Parliament Question: Dedicated Mental Health Counselling Centers

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1273 ANSWERED ON 28.07.2025 Dedicated Mental Health Counselling Centers 1273. Shri Rahul Kaswan: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the total number of Institutes of National Importance having dedicated mental health or counselling centers with full-time professional counsellors or clinical psychologists; (b) the total number of such institutes that have implemented a mental-health screening module such as questionnaires or peer-assessment programmes during student induction or periodically; (c) the total number of institutes having 24×7 helpline or tele-counselling services, either in-house or via partnerships with platforms like Your DOST or Tele-MANAS; (d) whether any centralized audit or annual report is produced to track student uptake, session usage, and impact evaluation across these institutions; and (e) whether the Government has any plans to ensure that all Institutes of National Importance comply with minimum mental-health infrastructure standards by 2026? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR) (a) to (e): The Government of India, through various policy measures and guidelines, has emphasised the critical role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in promoting students’ mental health, wellbeing and safety. National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) stipulates number of initiatives to ensure that the learning environments are engaging and supportive. It inter alia provides for availability of professional and career counselling, and counselling system for handling stress and emotional adjustment. All IITs, IIMs, NITs and IIITs have put in place dedicated mental health or counselling centres within their campuses, staffed with full-time or visiting professional counsellors, clinical psychologists, and in some cases, psychiatrists. A large number of institutes often host mental health training sessions to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and educate students about mental health issues. These sessions cover topics such as stress management, coping strategies, and recognizing the signs of mental health issues. Some Institutes offers on/off-campus counseling services, where students can meet with mental health professionals. Many of these institutions have also operationalised mental-health screening mechanisms such as structured questionnaires and peer-assessment programmes, during student induction and at regular intervals. Furthermore, 24×7 helpline numbersand tele-counselling services have been made operational to ensure continuous mental-health support to students. The Government is taking a multi-pronged approach to provide psychological support to students, teachers, and families for mental and emotional wellbeing. The Ministry of Education’s initiative MANODARPAN covers a wide range of activities to provide psychological support through a national toll-free helpline, live interactive sessions ‘Sahyog’, and webinars ‘Paricharcha’ that are organised regularly to create awareness about the importance of mental health among all stakeholders. Manodarpan also provides Directory of Counsellors working at both School and College/University level on (https://manodarpan.education.gov.in) as a resource for students. Live interactive sessions ‘Sahyog’ are organized for students on PM e-Vidya Channels, with practicing counsellors from Monday to Friday (from 05:00 pm- 05:30 pm) across different regions. 1133 ‘Sahyog’ sessions were held and more than 12 lakh viewers have been benefitted as on 24.07.2025. Besides the above, the Government (M/o Health & Family Welfare) has launched a "National Tele Mental Health Programme" (NTMHP) on 10th October 2022, to improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services in the country. As on 23.07.2025, 36 States/ UTs have set up 53 Tele MANAS Cells and have started tele mental health services. More than 24 lakh calls have been handled on the helpline number. UGC has issued Guidelines for Promotion of Physical Fitness, Sports, Student’s Health, Welfare, Psychological and Emotional Well- being at HEIs on 13.04.2023, which provide for promoting physical fitness and sports activities for students; creating safeguards against academic pressure, peer pressure, behavioural issues, stress, career concerns, depression and other issues on the mental health of students; to teach positive thinking & emotions in the student community; and to promote a positive and supportive network for students. The Ministry on 10.07.2023 has also circulated a broad framework for emotional and mental well being of students in HEIs with direction to all Centrally Funded Institutions to develop institutional mechanism to address the emotional and mental wellbeing of students in HEIs. An Integrated approach for Promoting Positive Mental Health, Resilience, and Wellbeing has been conceptualized under the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme. The goal is to empower faculty to address student mental health concerns for early intervention. Under this integrated approach, so far, 1,949 faculty from over 160 centrally funded HEIs have participated in 27 online capacity building sessions since May 2024. All institutions have their mechanism for analysing data at the institutional level for studying the trends, to understand the impact of interventions and improvement of counselling system. The process of strengthening and upgrading mental-health infrastructure in educational institutions is accorded due priority. ***