Health · Mental Health · 7 hrs ago
Why listening to students matters in India’s suicide crisis
The story focuses on the need to hear students’ own accounts as India faces a student suicide crisis.
It describes a student whose absences were treated by teachers as indiscipline and bad behaviour.
As she grew quiet and withdrawn, her parents took her to a mental health centre, where she was labelled abnormal and assessed for depression.
The story says shame and ridicule can silence students, making it harder to understand what they are experiencing.
It also warns that coping responses may be mistaken for mental disorders when professionals rely on observation and interviews without hearing a person’s perspective.
It argues that listening without judgement is important, but gives no specific policy or next step.
The article argues that listening to students’ lived experiences is crucial to addressing student suicides in India.
It describes a student whose growing absences were treated by teachers as indiscipline.
As she became silent and withdrawn, her parents took her to a tertiary mental healthcare centre.
There, she was labelled abnormal and considered in need of psychiatric treatment for depression.
The article warns that coping mechanisms may be mistaken for mental disorders when people cannot speak without fear of shame or ridicule.
- Who
- Students in India, including a student described in the article.
- What
- The article argues that listening to students’ experiences is crucial to tackling student suicides.
- When
- The article was published on November 9, 2026.
- Where
- India; the student’s location is not stated.
- Why
- To help address the student suicide crisis and avoid mistaking complex coping mechanisms for mental disorders.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The student became increasingly absent from class, and teachers treated her absences as indiscipline.
Her parents were notified, and teachers labelled her a bad student.
As she became silent and withdrawn, her parents consulted a tertiary mental healthcare centre.
- Publication date
- November 9, 2026
- Country
- India
- Student’s attendance
- Increasingly irregular
- Healthcare centre
- Tertiary mental healthcare centre
- Label applied at the centre
- Abnormal
- Treatment described
- Psychiatric treatment for depression