Student life in popular culture is often envisioned as a
happy-go-lucky period, devoid of the worries and responsibilities that
define adulthood. In India, however, this assumption couldn't be farther
from the truth. Students have consistently faced tremendous pressure in
this country, where the opportunities are limited, the competition
fierce, and where futures are determined by mark sheets. To make matters
worse, Indian families are known to set incredibly high expectations
when it comes to academic results, which further intensifies the burden
on students.
SOURCE: Hindustan Times
Unfortunately, not everyone emerges from this nightmare with flying colours.
Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveal that close to 40,000 students in India committed suicide from 2011¬ to 2015, with 8,934 cases in 2015 alone. Another report
from 2012 discloses that India's suicide rates for people between 15
and 29 years, are among the highest in the world. This is even more
significant when you consider that with suicide being illegal, several
cases are hushed up as accidents or left unreported.
For a typical class-XII student, stress levels run especially high as
scores from board exams and the various entrance tests that follow
determine not only college placements but also their careers—a fact that
parents cannot drive home enough. And with no respite either at home or
among peers, a student is often forced to consider irreversible
measures.
The year 2017 alone has thrown up several cases across the country,
where exam-related stress has caused a student to take the extreme step.
One major concentration of this unfortunate epidemic is in Kota,
Rajasthan – India's coaching hub where, according to estimates, over
1.75 lakh aspirants gather annually to battle for limited seats in the
country's most prestigious colleges. The most recent casualty, a 16-year-old
from West Bengal, committed suicide allegedly after failing to clear
the IIT-JEE- Mains this April. Earlier in January, the same step was
taken by a 19-year-old
medical-school aspirant from Himachal Pradesh, who, like many others,
had made their way to the town with dreams of a brighter future.
SOURCE: Hindustan Times
In the past six years, Kota has seen over 60 student suicides, with a
majority of them attributed to exam failures. In a video message
recovered after his death last year, Aman Kumar Gupta, a student from
Bihar, apologized to his parents
for not being able to live up to their expectations. "Everyone at the
coaching institute and my friends helped me but I am not been able to do
it right," he said in the 11.14 minute long video clip.
Even outside Kota, the alarm bells have been ringing for years now. Students from regions as diverse as Phagwara, Udupi, Noida, and Mumbai
have all taken their lives within these first five months of 2017, due
to study-related stress and burden of family expectations. In the most
recent case, 24-year-old management student Arjun Bhardwaj, streamed his
suicide as a 'live tutorial' on Facebook before jumping to his death
from a Mumbai hotel. The student's father reportedly told the police
that his son was depressed "due to repeated failure in exams".
SOURCE: Hindustan Times
Of late, the unsettling frequency of suicides has also drawn the
attention of administrators and celebrities alike, while even reputed
universities are talking of changing their curriculum.
Earlier this year, PM Narendra Modi urged students undergoing
depression to seek help, during his radio speech. The thought has since
been echoed by Bollywood actors Anupam Kher and Akshay Kumar as well,
both urging youngsters to speak up and look for other ways out.
That India urgently needs to start prioritising mental health goes without saying: Currently, only 0.06%
of our national health budget is dedicated to it, along there is 87%
nationwide shortage in mental-health professionals. On ground, this
means that a majority of schools, universities, and institutions lack
trained staff for counselling students caught on the brink of despair.
From a national perspective, student suicides glaringly highlight our
failure to protect and nurture our young and call for a critical review
of the education system and social structures. As adults, parents,
teachers, and leaders, safeguarding the interests of our students is a
responsibility we bear collectively. And the fact that more and more
children are driven to suicide instead of seeking help indicates that we
are failing this duty, over and over again.
For more information visit http://www.hindustantimes.com/brandstories/tatateajaagore/rising-cases-of-student-suicides-sound-alarm-bells-across-India.html
