Stress drives 40 students to suicide every year

High expectations to secure seats in prestigious institutes is a main reason for suicides by Sumit Kumar Singh

Despite the existence of umpteen number of helplines and widespread counselling, some students in the Capital continue to take the extreme step due to exam related stress.

Going by the statistics, at least 40 students kill themselves every year due to stress over examinations. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 23 boys and 19 girls committed suicide in 2010 in Delhi after being unable to cope with exam pressure.

While 25 boys and 23 girls committed suicide in 2009, 36 boys and 25 girls ended their lives in 2008. The numbers remained almost same the in 2007 as 24 boys and 19 girls committed suicide.

Psychologists says high expectations to secure a seat in a prestigious institute is the main reason for driving a student to the edge. They also blame the increasing communication gap between children and parents, which adds more pressure to the former.

“We don’t have a single answer to the question of students suicide. The reasons are pressure, competition, societal expectations and anxiety, which is high among the young,” says Dr Rani Bhatia, head of psychiatry department at St Stephen’s Hospital. Bhatia says one must try to understand suicide in “different dimensions”.

“Sometimes, people kill themselves due to acute depression. Some people also don’t understand what is affecting them and take the wrong step,” says Bhatia.

“Another section of people kill themselves due to external factors. If many people commit suicide, others may get influenced to do the same,” adds Bhatia.

On students killing themselves, she says, “Young people commit suicide because they do not realise that failure to get good marks is not the end of the world. But pressure from parents make them feel so. Children who take board exams are in an age group that is not capable of taking extreme pressure. Their anxiety leads to the fatal step.”

Parents need to understand their kids’ problems and try to solve them. Shashank Shekhar, former member of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, says, “Grades cannot reduce stress created by parents. Parents have to ensure that they do not put pressure on children to get 90 per cent. We must know that marks do not matter beyond a point. The problem is that parents are forcing their dreams on their children.

We have a syndrome in our society that class 12 marks mean the most.” Social stigma also plays an important role in driving kids to suicide as they do not want to feel left out of the better crowd if they score bad marks.

“Parents must learn to compromise,” he says. Several academic boards and NGOs have started helplines for affected students. The Central Board of Secondary Education launched its helpline on February 1. It got thousands of calls and CBSE counsellors provided career guidance to students and eased their anxiety.

Dial the toll-free number 18001803456 between 8 am and midnight. Some NGOs are also running helpline numbers for students. “We got 1,582 calls in 2011. The maximum number of calls were from students who were distressed and emotionally pained,” says Abdul Mabood, director of NGO Snehi.

“We also get calls from parents and we tell them that the worst thing they can do is to put pressure on their children,” says Mabood. He says exam stress is not the only reason behind suicides; it is just the trigger. “Parents must not create undue pressure on them.”