The NMC Task Force Recommendations Nobody Has Enacted

What the NMC task force asked for, and got

A task force reported in June 2024

The National Medical Commission set up a task force on the mental health of medical students. A government psychiatrist chaired it, and it reported in June 2024 across 153 pages.

Ten days at home, once a year

It said colleges could consider a ten day vacation at least once a year, for undergraduate and postgraduate students, taken by rotation so that mandatory training is not interrupted.

Stop charging students to repeat a year

It recorded that failing students on purpose to collect repetition fees had been brought to its notice, called that grossly unethical, and asked for strict penalties.

Two counsellors for every five hundred

It asked for two counsellors per 500 students, reporting to the dean, behind a firewall that keeps what a student says away from the faculty who teach them.

A helpline on campus, day and night

It asked every college to run the national tele mental health helpline on 14416, and to keep a local helpline open around the clock for students in distress.

None of it is a rule yet

Two years on, none of these has been written into a regulation, a circular or a gazette notification. They stay recommendations, so no college can be penalised for ignoring them.

Want the help that already exists?

Our guide to suicide prevention for NEET students sets out what actually helps, the helplines running now, and what the Supreme Court has already directed colleges to do.