NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Theme : Health & Education
Paper:GS - 2
Three students committed suicide within 12 hours in Rajasthan’s Kota, which is regarded as the education and coaching hub of India. Known for producing IITians, doctors and engineers, Kota has been in the news for the last few years because of the students’ suicides and depression they suffer.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- What is Suicide
- The NCRB’s Report 2021
- Reasons behind Increasing Student Suicides in India
- Interventions
- Various Solutions
- Road Ahead
Context : Three students committed suicide within 12 hours in Rajasthan’s Kota, which is regarded as the education and coaching hub of India. Known for producing IITians, doctors and engineers, Kota has been in the news for the last few years because of the students’ suicides and depression they suffer.
What is Suicide :
- Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death.
- Mental and physical disorders, substance abuse, anxiety and depression are risk factors.
- Some suicides are impulsive acts due to stress (such as from financial or academic difficulties), relationship problems (such as breakups or divorces), or harassment and bullying.
- Despite being entirely preventable, India has been increasingly losing individuals to suicide.
The NCRB’s Report 2021 :
- The report released this year shows that the number of students’ deaths by suicide rose by 4.5 per cent in 2021.
- Maharashtra bears the highest toll with 1,834 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 1,308, and Tamil Nadu with 1,246.
- According to the report, student suicides have been rising steadily for the last five years.
- According to a 2012 Lancet report, suicide rates in India are highest in the 15-29 age group the youth population.
- According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), in 2020, a student took their own life every 42 minutes; that is, every day, more than 34 students died by suicide.
Reasons behind Increasing Student Suicides in India :
- Education is for livelihood more than knowledge: Education in India has been viewed as a gateway to employment and livelihood rather than to knowledge.
- Pressure to get into government jobs or highly paid private sector: Many students and their families dream of the coveted ‘sarkari naukri’ (government job) to escape the precarious social, caste and class predicaments they find themselves in.
- Limited educational infrastructure: The failure of the Union government to improve the country’s educational infrastructure means that exam-oriented coaching had become the norm.
- Coaching centers as prisons for many students: Cashing in on the ‘hope for a better future,’ coaching centers emerged as one of the predominant industries in the education sector. However, these centers are now being seen as prisons for the many youngsters who join them; where their bodies, souls and dreams are tamed.
- Number of factors marginalising students who are already vulnerable: Students from marginalised sections are pushed further to the margins through a number of factors, such as the lack of English-medium education; private institutions charging high fees; poor quality education in government-run schools and institutes; ever-growing economic inequality; graduates not having the adequate skills to secure jobs; and caste discrimination.
- Social ideology of success and failure: The rise of neoliberalism as an economic and social ideology has pushed the youth to blame themselves for their failure to secure their ‘dream job’ while the government continues to shirk its basic responsibility.
- Flawed neoliberal agenda for failure and success: The neo-liberal agenda keeps propagating the belief that it is not that hard to find success if one works hard enough, normalizing the notion that the youth should blame themselves for their ‘failures’.
Interventions :
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Mental Healthcare Act, 2017:The Act seeks to ensure rights of the person with mental illness to receive care and to live a life with dignity.
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Anti- Ragging Measures:
- The SupremeCourt of India makes it mandatory for academic institutions to file official F.I.R (with the police in any instance of a complaint of ragging.
- University Grants Commission (UGC)passed UGC Regulation on curbing the Menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions, 2009. It lays down stringent measures and proactive steps to curb ragging.
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Student Counseling System:
- The University Grants Commission in 2016 has asked all universities to set up a “students counseling system” to deal with all sorts of problems that the students might face such as anxiety, stress, fear of failure,homesickness and other academic troubles.
- The framework for implementation of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) recognises the role of guidance and counseling services to students.
Various Solutions :
- The myth of the Indian family being supportive also needs to be called out: Family, being the primary social unit of the society, shapes the aspirations and dreams of the youth. Family should be supportive in a true sense.
- Deeper introspection is needed instead of making shift solutions: Deeper introspection on structural aspects of the education system is the need of the hour. Instead, we take pride in coming up with Jugaad (makeshift solutions) to manage affairs peripherally, without dealing with the root of the problem.
- Easing pressure in the students: Others have suggested the guidelines issued by the Board of Intermediate Education in Andhra Pradesh in 2017 to ease the pressure on students, including yoga and physical exercise classes and maintaining a healthy student-teacher ratio.
- Realizing today’s realities and making changes: It is painfully evident that the failure to address the larger issue of a punishing education system that is simply not designed to support young minds or prepare them for today’s economic realities continues.
- Collective responsibility: Not only does family play a significant role in students life, even society has a huge influence. We as a society should realize the true essence of life and not confine students into success and failure tags. Instead support them empathically in realizing their true potential.
Road Ahead :
- The government should clearly commit to tackle the growing menace of suicides among Indian youth. The government must undertake a comprehensive study on the reasons behind suicides and formulate a national suicide prevention strategy with special focus on children and adolescents
- It is important to revamp the exam-centric education system in India. The curriculum should be designed in ways that stress the importance of mental exercises and meditation.The Delhi government’s initiative on the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ may be a step in the right direction.
- Training teachers as gatekeepers and innovative methods of examination should be adopted to mitigate risk factors of suicides.
- Students need to be appreciated and it is important to change how Indian society perceives education. It should be a celebration of efforts and not marks.
- Equal Opportunity Cells with an anti-discrimination officershould be made functional in universities and colleges.
- Effective counseling centers should be set up in all schools and colleges to address student’s anxieties, depression and other mental health issues.
- All the stakeholders – teachers, educators, parents, student counselors and peer groups, must build networks of solidarity and communication to help each other.
FAQs :
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What is Suicide?
ANS.
- Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death.
- Mental and physical disorders, substance abuse, anxiety and depression are risk factors.
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What is the rate of Increase in suicide in 2021 ?
ANS. The report released this year shows that the number of students’ deaths by suicide rose by 4.5 per cent in 2021