LESSONS IN EMPATHY

The Supreme Court’s decision to monitor the implementation of mental health and suicide-prevention guidelines for students marks an overdue recognition of a growing national emergency.

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India’s classrooms and coaching centres — once seen as springboards for success — have increasingly become spaces of unbearable pressure, fear and isolation. In directing all states and Union Territories to file compliance affidavits on the guidelines it laid down in July, the apex court has placed accountability squarely where it belongs: on the institutions and administrators responsible for nurturing, not breaking, young minds.

At the heart of the court's concern lies an alarming truth. India’s education system, for all its emphasis on performance, remains poorly equipped to handle psychological distress. The rising number of student suicides, especially in coaching hubs such as Kota, Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam, exposes a culture of relentless competition where failure is equated with shame. In many cases, students live away from families, under rigid academic regimes, and with little access to counselling or peer support. By insisting on a uniform mental health policy and a transparent grievance-redressal mechanism, the court seeks to push institutions toward systemic empathy — something policy and pedagogy have long ignored.