India reported 10,732 suicides in 2021.
In Kota, there were 10 suicide cases in 202, 12 in 2022 and 8 in 2023 till September.
We just celebrated World Suicide Prevention Day on Sunday, a significant day to raise awareness regarding a single message that resonates with people, that suicide is never the way out and can be prevented. In India, a country where poor mental health, a rising concern that can be linked to suicides, is still stigmatised, suicide rates among students is alarmingly high.
With about 35 cases reported daily, student suicides rose by 4.5 per cent in 2022. Of the 10,732 suicides in 2021, 864 were linked to exam failures, while nine Central University students committed suicide in 2023.
Kota, an educational hub for students, has been reporting suicide cases as well. There were 10 suicide cases in 2021, 12 in 2022 and 8 in 2023 till September. Since the coaching centres were closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, there were no reports of student suicide in Kota that year.
Ritu Mehrotra, CEO and Founder of United We Care, tries to delve deep into the reasoning factors. According to her, the high-pressure environment of Kota where students study continuously for hours to compete with each other, proves to be detrimental to their mental health.
Ritu pointed out the fact that many of these students are forced into the coaching centres in Kota by their parents although they may have had a different career aspiration on their mind, something that does not align with the parents. Fear of failure and fear of not clearing the entrance also lead children to anxiety and depression. There is also a sense of loneliness among these students who feel their families would not respond well to their pleas of degrading mental health. She urged people to not stigmatise students who open up and seek therapy.
The CEO of Kota’s Motion Education Institute, Nitin Vijay, claimed that coaching centres shouldn’t be held responsible for student suicides because they are a national problem brought on by family pressure and unrealistic expectations. Parents should ascertain their child’s interest in the subject before sending them to study for engineering and medical tests. They should also concentrate on educating the child to handle the strain of passing competitive tests, he added.
