Rising Trend of Suicide among Students

There has been a lot of empty talk of making a new India- a strong, vibrant India, and what not! The New Education Policy-2020 is being implemented effectively; while developing positive thinking towards education, the maximum attention is being given to it. However, despite all these efforts, the number of students committing suicide has been increasing all the way all over the country. During 2020, more than 1, 2500 students committed suicide, then again during 2021, 13,000 chose to commit suicide out of despair. These figures are from the National Crime Records Bureau.

Two more students committed suicide this Sunday in Kota of Rajasthan. With these additional gory suicides, the number of suicides in Kota itself has gone up to 23 this year, which is a very serious issue. In this education city of Rajasthan, nine students have committed suicide during past two months. Students are continuously committing suicide here, is it the negligence by the government, administration or coaching institute or something else? Regarding this dark side of Kota, which is becoming a suicide hub, now a solution has to be found for this disaster. It is not that we do know anything about the reasons prevalent behind this horrible malaise created by a highly corrupt state government set-up and the educational mafia hand-in-hand. As young students from all over India are rushing into this so-called educational hub in Kota, this bloody city is increasingly becoming the veritable Slaughter House of our young national talents!

The most important role of education is being accepted in making the golden age of freedom meaningful, it is also being said that education is also such a weapon by which a person can transform not only himself, but also the society, the nation and the world. Then, what are the anomalies and ironies around the education that the tendency of suicide among the students is increasing day- by- day. Everyone knows that due to the education becoming a business, many bad practices are entering it, students are being pressured to give good exam results, more competition; and the rat- race of competition has created unbearable pressures on students. Besides, the parents also want to fulfil their own unfulfilled dreams through the unrealistic success of their wards—impose additional pressures on already harassed students. The parents see a golden future for their children in IIT, NIT or PMT, for which many parents also take loans to realise their dreams. When a student who is suppressed and harassed by the unrealistic dreams of his parents reaches the coaching institutes, the pressure of preparation and tests is put on him, and he is also intimidated by the educational mafia saying that JEE or NEET are the toughest exams in the world!

The success of any country's education system lies in the fact that instead of fierce competition, complexity and rat-race, there should be ease in the matter of getting education from elementary to higher level. If due to any reason a student is facing difficulties in studying or achieving success in it, then measures should be taken to remove those undue pressures. However, for the past several decades, this question has been persistent that a large number of students drop out of schools and colleges midway, only to commit suicide out to the fear of the prospect of not being able to face their parents. This concern has been underlined many times in various study reports of the organizations working on this issue from the government to various educational institutions; however, so far no meaningful solution has been found out. From the administration to the director of the coaching institutes, no one is able to answer properly as to why the suicide cases are rising continuously. To stop the prevalent tendency of committing suicide by the students, why no initiative for effective counselling of the parents and the students both is not being taken up? Why is no effective initiative being taken by the coaching institutes and administration both in this regard? And last, but not the least, why are no deterrent measures being taken up to punish the educational mafia through sending them to jail?
Meanwhile, only one question arises again and again: who is putting pressure on the children? There is pressure of scoring high in tests and exams from the coaching institutes or due to family pressures; or in case the students do not get the desired exam results, they become prone to come under such pressure as to commit suicide. Some students come under so much pressure and anxiety even before the result comes, they rush to take harsh, tragic and dreadful steps like committing suicide. A Pune-based consultancy firm Infinium Global Research estimates that the coaching industry will be worth over Rs 58,000 crore by the end of this year; that means the coaching institutes industry is so rich and powerful that if they want they can take initiative to improve the mental health of the children. They may also mentor students who have low test scores, and who often miss the classes. It is not that such initiatives have not been taken by the coaching institutes of Kota, but it is clear that they are proving to be insufficient.

The irony is that the increasing incidence of suicide are not only happening in coaching institutes, but students of higher educational institutions like IITs, NITs and IISERs, IIMs, PMT and Central Universities are also committing suicide. The big question is that instead of making high citizens, these institutes are forcing students to commit suicide, so along with a black stain on them, a big question also arises about the level of education and the environment in such institutes that is not proper. The government and the educationists of the country will also have to worry about the fact as to why 92 students who took admission in these higher educational institutes during past five years committed suicide in the middle of their studies. Similarly, Darshan Solanki, a first year student of IIT Bombay, committed suicide recently. After this, the students have been officially asked not to ask each other about G (advance) rank or GATE score; nor ask any other question that exposes the student's caste, richness-poverty and other aspects related to it. Such guidelines are needed not only by the IIT Bombay, but also by all higher education institutes, and coaching institutes in Kota and elsewhere. Although the Kota administration had issued a guideline about a year ago to get the children out of psychological pressure, yet this guideline has not been followed completely by any coaching institute in Rajasthan. However, the question is, what steps did the administration take against these erring institutes? The question is whether such symbolic steps by the state government can solve such a serious problem of rising number of suicides by the young students?

To control the growing tendency of committing suicide among the student suicide, first of all parents are needed to realise the true potential of their children, and to help them to move forward accordingly. Parents, coaching institutes and the government machinery—all of them have to work together to stop what is happening in Kota today. It is well known that on one hand, the standards set in the educational system in school-college are not easily acceptable to many students, on the other hand, due to non-conformity in studies, from the form of teaching to competition, poverty, family, social and other factors. It is related to many factors and its solution will need to be seen only by putting all the points in one formula.