From July, the new academic year, Mithibai College will begin a new peer counselling system. Third-year students will be trained to help their juniors overcome academic and personal problems. Rajpal Hande, principal of the college, said the initiative aims to promote student mental health and give juniors trusted people to share their problems with and prevent them from escalating.
Mr. Hande said, “The issue of student mental well-being is of great concern to us. I felt that students can open up to their peers more. This system will give them confidence that they are being taken care of.” The system will be introduced on a trial basis and the response will be assessed.
“This is an important initiative. We have counselling centres but students, especially new students, are not comfortable talking to teachers,” said Mrunmayee Kandalgaonkar, a fromer B. Sc biotechnology student and member of the college’s students council and of YAMI (Young Ambassadors of Mithibai College), which oversees student outreach and welfare.
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“Third year students will be chosen by YAMI to be counsellors. We will address many of the problems we faced in first and second year,” said Satwik Gupta, who enters the third year of B.Com this July.
“Problems range from personal and family to academic. Students face a lot of stress. They take up courses because of family pressure and are unaware that career prospects are bright for courses of their interest. We can alleviate a lot of mental stress with our help,” said Mr. Gupta.