The judgment emphasizes the need to address mental health and wellbeing issues of students and highlights the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and Right to Education Act in ensuring the care and protection of children and their right to education.

S. Vimala, J.

1. This petition has been filed by the petitioner, who is the father, to produce his daughter, namely, Namitha, aged 19 years, who went missing from 22.12.2017. Since her whereabouts are not known, the petitioner preferred a complaint to the respondents police and the same has been registered in Crime No.649 of 2017. However, since no effective steps were taken, the petitioner is before this Court.

2. The respondents police have produced the detenue, namely, Namitha along with her father, before this Court.

3. On enquiry, it is stated by the detenu that because of the poor performance in the examination and apprehending scolding at the hands of the father, the victim left away from the house and the father has assured that he will adjust with the education performance of her daughter.

4. Recording the assurance given by the father of the detenu, the Habeas Corpus Petition is closed, so far as this detenu is concerned and as the detenu is a major, she is set at liberty. However, in order to avoid future recurrence, we are of the view that some steps have to be taken, as a preventive measure.

4.1. In India, children constitute 46% of the population and this country is the home to nearly 19% of the world's children.

4.2. Education is an ongoing process and as a result, the students are responsible for being cognizant of issues and changing trend within the society. In recent times, we eventually come across several incidents that unraveled the deviant behaviors of student population, namely, student committing suicide, students killing teachers, students eloping with the other sex, students either themselves involved in drug addiction/trafficking or being entangled in those problems etc.

4.3. The mental health and wellbeing of the student population did not get the deserved attention. The students experience significant stress in some form or the other in their lives. Some stresses are part of the normal growing up, while others are more environmental like parental conflict, divorce, physical and sexual abuses, pressure on academic achievement, peer pressures, etc. They suffer from an emotional or behavioural disorder during their younger ages, regardless of where they live and how economically they are. They remain silent sufferers for a long time with majority of the families being unaware or ignorant of the ongoing inner emotional turmoil of their children.

4.4. Left unattended, these mental health problems, during childhood and adolescence period would result in grave potential to turn into serious psychiatric illness / disorder, when they become adult.

4.5. There is undeniable vacuum with regard to the availability of services for providing mental health care. According to World Health Report (2001), schools are becoming the most appropriate venue for health related interventions of children. Providing school-based mental health programmes for school children involve the collaborative partnerships between parents and school professionals, namely teachers, psychologists, if available, to deal with the children to promote children's academic and mental health success and to deal with factors that are the barriers for the effective student functioning. Therefore, we are of the view that the school mental health programme, if implemented, would be effective in improving learning and psychological well being and treating mental health problems.

4.6. To address those issues, we constitute a committee comprising of the following members, under the Chairmanship of the Director of Technical Education;