Why listening to students’ voices is crucial to tackling the student suicide crisis in India

In mental health practice, where diagnosis heavily relies on clinical observation and structured interviews, complex coping mechanisms may be diagnosed as mental disorders when individuals are denied ‘permission to narrate’ their lived experiences without fear of shame and ridicule. Image used for representational purposes only | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto After she became increasingly irregular in class, the teachers deemed a student’s absenteeism, a misdemeanour. The parents were notified of her ‘indiscipline’, a label that aligned seamlessly with the teachers’ accusations that she was a ‘bad student’. As she became increasingly silent and withdrawn, parents consulted a tertiary mental healthcare centre where she was branded ‘abnormal’, in need of psychiatric treatment for depression. Published - November 09, 2026 04:04 pm IST