World Mental Health Day Reflection
By Dr Binu Thomas
Education today is more advanced, globalised, and competitive than ever before. Parents invest heavily in choosing the “best” schools and curricula, hoping to secure bright futures for their children. Yet, in this race for excellence, we are quietly neglecting the most important part of the school system, the human core, our students’ emotional and mental well-being.
The crisis is not imagined. It is measurable, visible, and alarming.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), student suicides in India rose by 34% between 2019 and 2023. In 2023 alone, they accounted for 8.1% of all suicides in the country. Globally, the numbers are no better. A UNICEF report from 2019 revealed that one in seven adolescents aged 10–19 lives with a mental disorder. The CDC (2023) reported that 40% of all students, and 53% of girls, experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. These are not temporary dips in mood; they are symptoms of a collapsing coping system.
Every day, our news media reports incidents of student suicides from across India. These stories are often followed by blame, sympathy, and last-minute firefighting, but none of this has ever saved a life.
Part of the problem lies in how childhood itself has changed. In his book, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt explains how the shift from play-based to screen-based childhood has created four foundational harms:
1. Social deprivation
2. Sleep deprivation
3. Attention fragmentation
4. Addiction to devices and content
These disruptions, combined with academic pressure, isolation, parental expectations, and stigma around mental health, form a dangerous ecosystem for young minds.
Yet, most schools respond to emotional distress with what I call the “Band-Aid approach”, reacting only when behaviours, breakdowns, or crises become visible. A student acts out? Send them to a counsellor. A child shuts down? Call the parent. These quick fixes might stop the bleeding, but they do not heal the wound.
What we need instead is a DNA-level approach to wellbeing.
DNA defines identity. When wellbeing is in the DNA of a school, it is not an add-on, it is embedded in every layer of the ecosystem. This means we need urgent measures to implement:
• Policies and practices that prioritise emotional safety
• Trained mental health professionals in every school
• Suicide gatekeeper training and mental health first aid as compulsory components of staff development
• Peer support systems that create safe spaces for students to express themselves
• Parent partnerships that promote awareness instead of shame
With this approach, we can build a preventive mental health ecosystem in schools. It will build resilience from an early stage, reduce stigma, normalise seeking support, identify distress long before it escalates, and foster confident, emotionally aware students.
As we observe World Mental Health Day on 10 October, this year’s theme, “Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies”, reminds us that crises do not always come from floods, wars, or earthquakes. The silent catastrophe unfolding in our schools is just as urgent, just as devastating, and far more preventable.
If we want students to flourish, wellbeing must be a foundation. When mental health becomes part of a school’s identity, every classroom, staffroom, and leadership decision begins to reflect it.
The time to act is not after the loss of a child. The time is now.
(Dr Binu Thomas is a Counselling Psychologist & Wellbeing Consultant)
