Student suicides: Is academic pressure sole reason?

We're still a few weeks away from the board examinations. For the past few months the entire country has been agog with the news about the sweeping proposed educational reforms.

CBSE had already announced that the Xth board exams are optional, other state education departments have made similar recommendations to the local governments, yet there is a sudden spate of reported cases of several teenage students, as young as 12-year-olds having committed suicide. Is academic pressure the only reason for such random acts of suicide?

Several reasons are attributed as reasons for such negative actions; strong parental pressure - whether about obtaining marks or making career choices; sometimes it is the pressure of performance in games, sports and hobby classes.

Peer pressure can be equally negative, when friends in groups continuously compare marks and discuss the extent of revisions done; the hype of board exam seems to have contributed to the largest number of teenage suicide cases reported. Infatuation factor seems to be another contributing factor, where students opt to die when either turned down or rejected.

Since having a special friend from the opposite sex has become fashionable, it provides the additional pressure to kids who do not have a steady partner.

There are several lessons being drawn from the film 3 Idiots. It is being considered a cult in the way it communicated several messages to parents in explaining that kids should be allowed to follow their hearts and be self-educated rather than self-trained.

The film is simultaneously tangential being blamed for suggesting to students to take the route of suicide, by promoting the concept of being losers rather than to fight it out.

Children at a young age often tend to imitate, they wish to be popular and create sensation or do such acts of heroism, without realising the consequences.

The question is therefore being asked, if the success of the movie 3 Idiots has helped contribute to the increase of the teenage suicide rate by glorifying this cowardly act.

There are more than one reasons why a teenager takes this drastic step; often it is a combination of reasons, some smart kids may even time their suicide acts during exams time according to a source from Saath, an organisation that offers help to people suffering from suicidal tendencies.

The www.befrienders.org is a website that provides suicide helpline details across India. It gives details of how to read the warning signs of depressions and suicidal tendencies. It also provides active support by helping one connect online immediately and talk to a counselor.

Comprehensively, it deals with how to survive a suicide case in the family by dealing with one's own feelings of guilt.
Research says that suicide is the sixth leading cause of death among six- to 14-year-olds and the third leading cause for 15- to 25-year-olds.

India reportedly ranks highest in the number of teenage suicides and Gujarat is at number 18. In fact statistics reveal that suicide rates among young teens and young adults have increased by almost 300 per cent.

But what really goes on in the adolescent mind before it decides to take that final fatal step? Experts opine that it is never an impulsive decision, but rather a well thought out process.