Mental Pressure: A Gigantic Reason for Student Suicides in India

In the past few years, India has seen a lot of student suicides, and the cause after investigation comes out to be the consequence of mental pressure. Many steps have been taken to control this, but all in vain. 

Let us close our eyes and think for a minute about why students commit such disgraceful activity, which leaves a deep scar on their families forever. There must be some genuine reasons behind student suicides, which may somewhat be the result of the mental pressure created on them.

As we can see, in many parts of India, parents have focused too much on scoring marks and competing to be the best. For this, they go to any extent, from providing their ward with numerous tuitions to pushing them to excel in whatever field they are in. This, though, motivates students to give their best, but at the same time, it takes away from them the strength to cope with coming second. They fail to believe that they can be dethroned.

The result of having them made to believe to succeed in all the fields makes it harder for them to come to terms with the fact that they can have a bad day or someone was just slightly better than them on the given day. But this doesn't end here. Their parents' constant scolding or taunting starts to eat them up, and they fail to convey their feelings to anyone.

As per data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB Report 2021), the number amounts to 13000, approximately 35 per day. 35 is a large number. And these stats have seen a growth of 27% from the year 2016 to 2021. 

But let's figure out to what extent it is right for a student to commit suicide, considering taking such steps takes a lot of guts. One of the reasons could be the mental pressure created by academics, considering that our country is more marks-based than skills-based. If you're good at studies and have good grades, you're respected a lot, but the one having skills more than marks is not considered at first thought. 

But the question remains: Is suicide the only answer to justify their worth in society? Are they not good enough to be considered for selection in any field? And if they do, are they not correctly guided to succeed? Or failing in their process makes it hard for them to answer to parents, relatives, and society?

The least parents can do to make their children feel secure and not afraid of failing is to celebrate the failure as they usually do in their triumphs. This will not only raise a sense of acceptance in children's hearts but also change their view of the world of competition.

Another thing that we as a society do is normalise failure and not be harsh on failing. And to add to that, secondly, that can be done is not expecting the children to be good at everything. 

Thirdly, it's been said for so long now that let them follow their passion, which is correct but with a change. We should allow them to be reasonably correct in choosing their career or whatever they wish to get in as long as it's not a world of negativities.

To conclude, good guidance, proper conversations, and an aim to succeed someday may relieve the burden of expectancy from their back to focus on their goal and be optimistic in life. Let's generalise, "It's okay to fail as long as you believe in your capabilities". Below are some links to note how critical this situation is.