The Indian parent is obsessed with making their kids doctors and engineers, betting everything on a “safe” career. But Chandrapur MBBS aspirant Anurag Borkar’s recent suicide raises the question: Just how safe can a profession be if your child feels trapped in it?

Ahead of World Mental Health Day 2025, here’s a closer look at why India’s teens are feeling more anxious, uncertain, and unheard than ever before

Student suicides in India have reached alarming levels, with over 13,800 cases reported in 2023, the highest in a decade, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2023 report. Experts and educators stress that academic pressure, emotional stress, and lack of accessible counselling are key factors, highlighting the urgent need for supportive interventions in schools and homes.

While Tele-MANAS provides support, academic pressure, career uncertainty, and mental health challenges cannot be solved by one counsellor alone, writes Ganesh Kohli

Have you ever noticed how when schools, communities, NGOs, and government institutions team up, public school counseling begins to shift from aspiration into action? For the IC3 Movement, highlighting these collaborations shows how education policy, public school counseling, and government and education reform can work together with inspiring results.

At the heart of the IC3 Movement lies a simple but profound mission: to bring career and college counseling into every school, for every student, everywhere. This mission challenges an uncomfortable truth that access to good guidance often depends on where you live, what your family earns, or the networks you are born into. For too long, career guidance has been viewed as a luxury, available mostly to those in well-resourced schools or urban centers. IC3 exists to make sure that changes.

Walk into any classroom or hallway today, and you will see students with eyes fixed on their phones, laptops, or tablets. Technology is everywhere, and it is shaping how students learn, connect, and dream about the future. While the digital world offers incredible opportunities, it also raises important questions about balance, well-being, and human connection. This is where counselors, especially career and college counselors, come in. In a hyperconnected world, counselors are not only helping students choose careers and universities. They are also guiding them to use technology wisely, balance screen time, and connect with their true aspirations.

As the IC3 Movement enters its 10th year, we pause to reflect on how far we have come and look ahead with excitement at what lies before us. Over the past decade, the IC3 Movement was built by the global community of counselors, educators, universities, and partners who believe that counseling belongs in every school. This vision is not just an aspiration anymore; it is a reality that continues to grow stronger with each year. In this landmark year, IC3 Regional Conferences are being introduced as they stand as a symbol of how the Movement is deepening its impact. They embody IC3’s mission of making high-quality counseling accessible, inclusive, and sustainable across diverse regions of the world.