[ Dr Leeyir Ete ]
Across the country, youth distress cases are becoming deeply concerning realities, and Arunachal Pradesh, with its limited mental health workforce, stands particularly vulnerable to these challenges.
The question, therefore, is not whether mental health support is needed for our students, but how urgently we are willing to act. Against this backdrop, educational institutions can emerge as one of the critical avenues for intervention, wherein a meaningful step forward can be taken through the introduction of psychology, both as an area of study and an institutional support system.
Psychology as a discipline does far more than prepare students for career pathways; it equips them with essential life skills such as self-awareness, resilience, emotional regulation, empathy, and healthy coping mechanisms. These skills are increasingly vital as students navigate complex psychosocial stressors like academic pressure, identity struggles, family expectations and rapid social change. Without the language to name and understand their distress or the tools to manage it, emotional struggles often remain silent until they reach a devastating breaking point.
Promoting this initiative in our state would offer substantial advantages, and serve a dual purpose. Academically, it would open pathways for local students to pursue the subject without leaving the state, gradually strengthening Arunachal’s mental health workforce. At present, many youths are forced to move elsewhere for their education in this field, as no schools and only two higher education institutes in the state (department of psychology at Rajiv Gandhi University and St Claret’s College, Ziro) offer seats in the discipline.
Additionally, it would also function as a powerful preventive tool by enabling the development of on-campus counselling services, student support systems and peer-based mental health initiatives – safe spaces where students can seek help without fear, stigma, or judgement. When students, teachers, and administrators possess basic psychological understanding, they are better equipped to recognise early warning signs, respond with sensitivity, reduce stigma, and offer psychological first aid during crisis situations. Over time, these psychologically informed campuses can become spaces where students look out for one another, where emotional struggles are met with understanding rather than silence, and where seeking help is seen as strength rather than weakness. In such campuses, awareness itself becomes life-saving, easing the overall mental health burden and preventing distress from escalating into tragedy.
National policy frameworks acknowledge this urgent need for student mental health support. For instance, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 explicitly recognises mental health, emotional wellbeing, and life skills as essential components of holistic education. It calls for trained counsellors, social workers, and mental health professionals within educational institutions, while emphasising awareness, sensitisation, early identification of psychological distress, basic training in emotional regulation, stress management, and psychosocial support for both students and teachers. Similarly, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has repeatedly issued advisories directing higher educational institutions to establish structured counselling services, appoint qualified psychologists, and ensure accessible mental health support systems on campus. At the school level, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has advocated for guidance and counselling programmes, peer-support initiatives, and socio-emotional learning frameworks to strengthen resilience among children and adolescents. Yet, policy alone is not enough. What Arunachal needs is effective implementation of these frameworks within the education sectors to impact local realities.
An education system focused only on academic achievement, while overlooking the overall wellbeing of its students, is no longer sufficient for the realities young people face today. Our schools, colleges, and universities have become critical spaces where the mental health needs of students can be addressed. The introduction of psychology into classrooms and the presence of student counsellors in our campuses is not merely an academic reform but an investment in their emotional safety, their sense of belonging, and their hope for the future. For Arunachal, nurturing mentally healthy students today means building a stronger, more resilient society tomorrow. But are we, as a society, really ready to take the steps necessary to make this vision a reality? (The contributor is a psychologist and Project Research Scientist-II for Indian Council of Medical Research at Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, RGU)
