Rising Academic Stress And Five Ways to Deal With It

NEW DELHI: India is facing a problem with students’ mental health. Almost seven of 10 college students in India are enduring anxiety, suggests a study done in 2023 that looked at 1,628 students aged 18 to 29 from eight Indian cities.

The study published in Asian Journal of Psychiatry in 2025 also found that 59.9 percent of students had moderate to levels of depression 65.1 percent had trouble controlling their emotions or behaviour and 70.3 percent had psychological distress.

These numbers are concerning, with the increasing number of student suicides. India had over 13,000 student suicides in 2022, which’s 7.6 percent of all suicides in the country that year. More than 2,200 of these deaths were directly linked to failing exams.

Scale of the crisis

Kota, Rajasthan is a city with over 200,000 students who come to prepare for exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

Data shows that NEET-linked student suicides increased sharply from four cases in 2021 to 32 in 2025. At 14 such cases were documented in the first five months of 2026.

Research shows that 30 to 35 percent of students in Kota experience tension and anxiety. The city’s coaching industry, which is worth over ₹6,000 crore can be tough on students.

Many students do not get sleep with over 60 percent sleeping fewer than six hours per night during preparation periods.

In July 2025, the Supreme Court of India made 15 rules for all institutions, including coaching centres. These rules include appointing a counsellor providing mental health training for staff and displaying helpline numbers.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) also issued its framework requiring every higher education institution to appoint a full-time counsellor and establish a Mental Health and Wellbeing Cell.

Five ways to tackle the academic stress of students

Mental health professionals in every school and college

Having a trained counsellor on campus can reduce crisis incidents. The Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling made it mandatory for every institution with 100 or more students to have least one trained counsellor on staff.

Reform examination patterns

Prestigious institutions select students through a handful of single-day high-stakes exams. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 called for a shift toward competency-based assessment models.

Check sleep deprivation

The data on sleep deprivation among Indian competitive exam students is concerning. Mental health experts recommend that schools and coaching institutes formally cap study hours build physical activity into timetables and train wardens and hostel staff to recognize the signs of chronic sleep deprivation.

Parents as partners, not pressure points

The Supreme Court’s 2025 guidelines advise institutions to orient parents and guardians on mental health awareness and to encourage them to reduce academic pressure on students.

Structured family counselling sessions and career counselling sessions can help families develop expectations.

Create visible stigma-free pathways to help

The significant barrier to addressing students’ mental health crisis is not the absence of suffering. It is the absence of help-seeking.

Schools and colleges should invest in peer mental health ambassador programs, anonymous digital counselling options and structured orientation sessions that normalize help-seeking.

The Government of India has made some rules to help. The Supreme Court guidelines, the UGC framework and the Tele-MANAS helpline also help. However, implementation is crucial, in rural areas and smaller institutions. The coming academic year will be a test of whether these directions produced change.

Students battling metal stress can call iCall at 9152987821 or the governments Tele-MANAS helpline at 14416. The helplines are available round the clock.