A Silent Crisis

By the year 2023, approximately 35% of India's population comprises individuals under the age of 35. This young and dynamic demographic is widely regarded as a valuable asset that can drive the nation's progress and advancement. However, lurking within the education system is an alarming issue of student suicides, which presents a silent crisis and jeopardises the potential for a promising future.

A Silent Crisis. Image Source: Pexels.

"If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds."

These lines were written by a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad who wanted to be a writer of Science like Carl Sagan. However, these words were not associated with any kind of optimism, rather, they were the words of farewell, a lamentation of lost dreams.

What prompts someone with dreams of reaching the stars to end the journey for good? What compels students of our country's premier institutions (or those aiming for a place in these institutions) to abandon all hope and end their lives? The questions pose a challenge, but it is crucial that we address them and find solutions.

The problem of suicide in India is mostly seen in relation to farmers or celebrities. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in a report for the year 2021, records that out of the total number of victims (1,64,033), students accounted for 8% (13,089) and people involved in the farming sector accounted for 6.6% (10,881) of the total suicides. In recent years, several suicides linked to prominent institutions and educational hubs in the country have made the headlines. In the month of May 2023 itself, five students (appearing for various entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges) from the Kota Allen Institute, Rajasthan, are said to have committed suicide. In the arena of higher education, the cases of Darshan Solanki of IIT Bombay, Rohith Vemula, Senthil Kumar, and P Raju of the University of Hyderabad, and Payal Tadvi of BYL Nair Hospital in south Mumbai are some of the well-known ones.

The Burden of Education. Image Source: Outlook India

While statistical figures help provide a tangible and realistic understanding of the phenomenon, they run the risk of reducing the victims to inanimate numbers, shorn of their human and emotional elements. Suicides can be the result of complex and interconnected factors that pertain to the individual’s inner psychological fabric, sociological issues, and institutional shortcomings and failures. In Indian households, mental health issues are often repressed and stigmatised, and issues like anxiety and depression go unacknowledged. A sad reality is that the source of such anxiety and depression for an individual, more often than not, is one’s home itself.

The unrealistic expectations of family members are closely linked to a heavily exam-centric system, where success in exams is seen as the ultimate aim of education and the only yardstick for measuring talent. A large number of suicides among adolescents and young adults in India are linked to entrance exams for securing seats in prestigious public medical and engineering institutes in the country. The number of such coveted institutes is heavily disproportionate to the number of aspiring candidates, leading to severe competition. The problem is exacerbated for students from underprivileged backgrounds, for whom the room for failure doesn't exist, as their capacity to repeatedly invest time and resources in these exams is quite low.

Yet, the problem doesn’t vanish even after one secures a seat in one of these coveted institutions. Our universities and colleges, which are supposed to be progressive and liberal spaces, have presented instances of ragging, bullying, and caste discrimination. In a 2013 news article, the Times of India reported the rising cases of suicide in our prominent universities and the insensitive environment prevalent on the campuses. The Andhra Pradesh High Court took suo moto cognizance of this report and issued notices to the state and universities to inform them about the steps being taken to remedy the situation. However, the rising cases of suicide over the years prove that adequate steps have yet to be taken in this regard.

Suicides are More than a Mental Health Issue. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Suicide among students is not just concerned with mental health but is integrally tied to our educational structure. Hence, any effective solution can only be achieved if mental health awareness is coupled with policy changes in education. While the government has taken important steps in the direction of curbing suicides in general through policies such as decriminalisation of suicide (2017) and setting up helplines for suicide prevention and counselling, relevant policy changes focused on education are yet to be made. The New Education Policy (NEP) of India 2020 recognises the importance of providing flexibility and multiple exit points within the formal education system. However, such changes without addressing important concerns such as ensuring a safe and sensitive environment on campuses are not likely to be effective in the long term.