In India one student commits suicide every 55 minutes yet, Depression is conveniently Ignored. Why Student Suicides are frequently happening? everyone should question him or herself because today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among school age youth. With about 28 such suicides reported every day. However, suicide is preventable. Youth who are contemplating suicide frequently give warning signs of their distress but no one listens.
Shakespeare once had written a lovely poem called,”The Seven Ages of Man” where he divided a person’s life in seven parts.
Here’s the Indian version of it:
- Our protagonist, Sharma ji ka beta/beti, is born as Shakespeare put it ‘mewling and puking’. But already his fate has been sealed as the greatest doctor/engineer/lawyer this world has seen.
- Then come the critical age of 2,3, and 4 years. Parents frantically search for the best school. ICSE,CBSE, IGCSE,IB,State board is the language that parents now use. In order to prepare their ward,they send him to the best preschool that will train their child their ABCs and 123s for school admission.
- Applications are sent to all the top schools. The child appears for entrance tests and interviews. Then the day arrives. Success! He gets the best CBSE school.
- The next 10 years is the glorious ‘school stage.’ Morning,school. Evening, tuition. An extracurricular activity once a week. Preparation for the board examinations are in full swing.
- Memorise and vomit in the exam. You have ideas? Oh that’s great. You want to create something? Well son, first clear your boards. You can do all that later. That later never comes.
- Preparing for board examinations isn’t enough. There is another hurdle, the 12th standard entrance exams. Our sharmaji ka beta/beti is smart and good in maths. Let’s start IIT coachings from 6th standard.
- Shouldn’t our protagonist have an extra edge? The maths and science Olympiads are a great way to prepare for the entrance exams. NSTSE,NTSE,IMO- he gives them all.
- He scored a great 96% in the 10th board. Of course he could have done better if he didn’t keep his nose in novels all the time. What is this talk of him studying English literature? No. Maths is his strong point.He must get IIT.
- He now enters the Great Indian Rat Race. Two years in Kota taking IIT coachings will be the best thing for him. Parents start their famous brainwash,” Son, study these two years then your life is set!”
- Two years of gruelling study. Day in and out study and practice mcqs. Trapped in a 10 by 5 room, study beyond your capacity.
- The day of the entrance exam arrives. 360 mcqs in 180 minutes. It’s a race against time. But hasn’t life always been a race?
- He gets a rank of 345! Off to IIT Bombay to study computer science. Life is set!
Do you think his/her life is set now? Question yourself.
Let’s dive deeper into the cure of suicidal tendency and behaviours. The presence of resiliency factors can lessen the potential of risk factors to lead to suicidal behaviour and ideations. Once a child or adolescent is considered at risk, schools, families, and friends should work to build these factors in and around the youth.
A teenager who is planning to commit suicide may also:
- Complain mostly of being a bad person or feeling rotten inside
- Give verbal hints with statements for example: I won’t be a problem for you much longer, Nothing matters, It’s no use, and I won’t see you again
- Put his or her affairs in order, for example, give away favourite possessions, clean his or her room, throw away important belongings, etc.
- Become suddenly cheerful after a period of depression
- Have signs of psychosis (hallucinations or bizarre thoughts)
If a child or adolescent says, I want to kill myself, or I’m going to commit suicide, always take the statement seriously and immediately seek assistance from a qualified mental health professional. People often feel uncomfortable talking about death.
However, asking the child or adolescent whether he or she is in depression or thinking about suicide can be helpful. Rather than putting thoughts in the child’s head, such a question will provide assurance that somebody cares and will give the young person the chance to talk about problems.
- The Kota case (IIT coachings) is not an aberration. There have been frequent news reports of suicides taking place in coaching centres that train students for medical and engineering entrance examinations.
There is a series related to this called Kota Factory which shows 100% truth about how much pressure is given to children in the name of IIT coachings.
Click here to read more stories on students suicide –
If someone is going through something like that then his Parents, teachers, and friends are in a key position to pick up on these signs and get help. Most important is to never take these warning signs lightly or promise to keep them secret.
Parents are crucial members of a suicide risk assessment as they often have information critical to making an appropriate assessment of risk, including mental health history, family dynamics, recent traumatic events, and previous suicidal behaviours.
When all adults and students in the school community are committed to making suicide prevention a priority-and are empowered to take the correct actions-we can help youth before they engage in behaviour with irreversible consequences.
Finally, it is high time we seek to reinvent our educational ecosystem in ways that impregnate new meanings, new ideas of living, and renewed possibilities that could transform a life of precarity into a life worth living.
Also Read- How to Earn Money Online as a Student?