India, Nov. 27 -- The Supreme Court-constituted National Task Force (NTF) on student mental health and suicide prevention in higher education institutions has extended its online survey deadline to December 15 after receiving responses from 10% of over 60,000 institution heads and 1.6% of an estimated 43 million enrolled students as of November 25.

The survey, according to the NTF, has become the "biggest challenge" for the task force even though participation is mandatory for higher education institutions. Only 6,357 out of more than 60,000 institutions have responded.

"The response rate has not only been low, but also regionally very uneven - major states with a high density of higher education institutions such as Maharashtra, Rajast...