The spectre of suicide in India: Is our education system at fault?

Guwahati, Oct 28: While a number of religions, value systems, and legislations deem suicide as a crime and an act to be condemned, suicide is in fact a public health issue that is related to mental health and well-being of the individual and the community. Despite several awareness initiatives, the issue remains to be mitigated in an effective manner. Students and young adults in India choose to end their lives each year and the statistics are horrifying and deeply saddening. At the threshold of their incoming youth, what makes some students in India take their own lives? The issue of students dying of suicide seems to interact with a number of factors; mental health issues and the Indian education system being two of them.

Number of student suicides in India

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2021 brings to the fore that student suicides were at a 5-year high. The data from NCRB states that more than 13,000 students died by suicide in 2021, higher than the 12,500 students recorded in 2020. A report by the NCRB (2020) stated that a student died by suicide every 42 minutes, which indicates that more than 34 students die by suicide every day.

The NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicide in India (ADSI) Report (2020) pointed out that around 8.2 per cent of students in the country died by suicide. The report further states that about 64,114 people under 30 years of age took their own lives in 2020.

However, the Lancet published a report by the Global Burden of Diseases that showed that for every 100 suicides in the country, the study showed that only 63 are reflected in the NCRB data. If this is the scenario with the statistics of suicides in the country, then the factors that lead people and particularly students, to commit suicide is a grave crisis that needs immediate attention.

What causes are involved?

As per the NCRB data, keeping aside other causes or ‘unknown’ causes, the most frequent cause of suicide recorded by the ADSI Report for victims below the age of 18 years was ‘family problems’ (30 per cent of the total in this age group). ‘Love affairs’ (14 per cent), ‘illness’ (13 per cent), and ‘failure in examination’ (8 per cent) are also among the causes recorded by the NCRB for students taking this drastic step.

Clinical psychologist and mental health practitioner in Guwahati, Nikita Hazarika, states that warning signs of suicide can include some organic symptoms, including changes in sleep, appetite and mood swings; victims often either become socially withdrawn or unusually friendly; disclosing feelings of helplessness and guilt, and not wanting to live.

Aspirations, exams, and the business

The Indian middle class and lower middle class often harbour aspirations of upward social mobility, a lot of which are met by public-funded educational institutions and subsequently, the jobs that come with it at the end of the course.

However, there is ruthless competition for acquiring admission into these public educational institutions, which are few in number against the lakhs of young applicants who seek to study there. These institutions set unrealistic cut-off marks or entrance tests that often require training, commonly known as ‘coaching’ in the education business parlance. Those who have the time and resources to enrol in coaching classes are often placed at an advantage over those who do not have such resources. Often, students prepare for their medical and engineering entrance tests along with their preparation for Class XII board exams, which add to the already stressful structure of the education system.

Often seen as the hub of coaching institutes for aspirants of engineering and medical courses, Kota, in Rajasthan, finds a huge number of aspirants coming into the city to prepare for the JEE or the NEET every year. Coaching institutes often demand an exorbitant amount of money as fees while enrolling students and use English as a medium of instruction and communication. Students who do not have the resources to enrol themselves or access to English-medium education are often placed at a disadvantage against those who do. This often translates into a lack of access to education, adequate skills for the job market, possible unemployment, and a perpetuation of the cycle of poverty and marginalisation.

For those who may have the resources to enrol in coaching institutes are often segregated into different classes on the basis of their academic brilliance. This segregation leads to separate classes and separate grooming for students. This division may often lead to feelings of unworthiness, stress, and anxiety about a student’s own beliefs about themselves and their capabilities, thus descending into a spiral of feelings and experiences that may be detrimental to their mental health and well-being.

A worrying idea that has been afloat in the minds of people is the belief that it is not difficult to find success if one works hard enough. In a vicious mix of aspirations for upward social mobility, value systems that laud hard work at the cost of one’s health and well-being, and a structure that often seeks to eliminate candidates in entrance tests rather than to accommodate, a student is often left to blame themselves alone for their failures in examinations.

The pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in the world. As lockdowns were imposed to arrest the spread of infection, classes were relegated to online platforms. A large number of students did not have the necessary devices, access to the internet, or were digitally illiterate. Further, the pandemic being a global health crisis, affected the health and wellbeing of people, and students were no exception. All of these may be held as factors that accounted for them lagging behind in their courses, as a result of which there were demands by students and aspirants for extra attempts to appear for these entrance tests.

Further, after classes began to resume offline, many scholars believe that children and young adults were unable to communicate properly, develop friendships, or bond socially, which led to social isolation.

Government initiatives

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced in 2022 the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind, to address the grave crisis in the country. With time-bound action plans and multi-sector collaborations, the National Suicide Prevention Strategy seeks to bring about a reduction in suicide mortality by 10 per cent by 2030. The strategy seeks to establish effective surveillance systems; and psychiatric outpatient departments in districts that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme; and aims to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions, develop guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restrict access to the means of suicide.

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 is another initiative by the government to address mental health problems. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched a 24x7 toll-free helpline number called KIRAN to provide support to people facing mental health concerns. The Manodarpan initiative was under the Ministry of Education during the COVID-19 pandemic which aimed to provide support to students, families, and teachers for their mental wellbeing.

The Union Ministry of Education recently released guidelines for schools to prevent suicide among students. Titled UMMEED (Understand, Motivate, Manage, Empathise, Empower, Develop) these guidelines offer a plan of action by setting up of school awareness teams (SWTs), orientation of teachers and family members, and immediate response to students exhibiting warning signs.

Initiatives by the Tamil Nadu state government offered students who failed in exams, to re-take the exams in the same month as the declaration of results. Another initiative called the Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM Programme) promotes positive mental health practices among adolescents between 13 and 17 years of age to learn and engage with topics of mental health through role plays and discussions.

District administration in Kota (23 students committed suicide in 2023, the highest since 2015, when the number of students committing suicide was 17) has directed hostels and PG accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in every room and to provide mental support and security to the students studying there. A number of hostels and PGs in Kota provide table fans instead of ceiling fans to prevent suicide among students.

What experts say

Hazarika points out that there is stigma attached to suicide. She states that when society is not approachable, it creates a gap between the distressed person and the possibilities of prevention. Hazarika believes that with our lives being increasingly taken over by technology and man-made disasters, we are failing to be active listeners. We, in our respective social circles need to facilitate room for embracing vulnerability rather than promoting positivity alone.

Noted educator and motivation speaker in Guwahati, Nurul Islam Laskar, points out the necessity of a non-parent mentor for students who may be able to address the problems a student may be facing and subsequently prevent suicide. Laskar believes the curriculum taught to children in schools, while often focusing on the fulfilment of material ambitions, sometimes forgets that fulfilment can be attained through service to the society. He states that school and college curriculums also need to address and accommodate spiritual fulfilment by imparting knowledge that minimum needs often leads to contentment.

Initiatives by educational institutions

The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, envisions the promotion of mental health and wellbeing among students. UMMEED guidelines have been drafted by the Union Ministry of Education to address the mental health issues of children in schools.

Additionally, several IITs are taking preventive measures against suicide. This includes counselling and mentorship programmes for students with backlogs, reducing curriculum, and setting up of mental wellness centres.

IIT Bombay is working towards a change in the undergraduate curriculum to make courses more relevant, motivating, and reduce stress among students.

IIT Guwahati’s Centre for Holistic Wellbeing promotes the overall well-being of the students on campus and mitigate the gap between stigma for seeking counselling and access to mental health care. Additionally, marks of students and students with backlogs are shared with faculty members and counsellors, who get in touch with the students to understand their mental health and the reason for their low performance.

IIT Delhi, before the outbreak of COVID-19, had revamped its syllabus to help students with the pressures of studies

A concern that needs to be addressed

According to a 2007 study by researchers, 1 in 60 people are affected by suicide in India. This includes people who have attempted suicide and those who are affected by the death of suicide committed by their close ones. Suicide, therefore, needs to be perceived as a concern that has multi-dimensional aspects. It must be addressed as a public health issue as well as a mental health issue, which is a part of our lived realities as it interacts with economic, social, cultural, and psychological aspects of our existence as individuals and communities.

(Suicide can be prevented. Helpline numbers are available at http://healthcollective.in/suicide-prevention-helplines/)