Student suicides in India: An epidemic that is seeing a big spike

A nimbus cloud looms over India’s greatest treasure, the very asset that will decide our destiny as a nation — our students.  A cloud that is becoming darker, eerier, and more ominous by the hour. Literally.

One student is committing suicide every hour in India. By the time you get into bed tonight, a few more bright minds will have taken their lives. That is when they’re not being flooded by rainwater in basements in the heart of the capital city of the country, or being systemically sexually abused in school.

At the Annual IC3 Conference & Expo 2024, on Wednesday, a report was launched based on National Crime Records Bureau data: “Student Suicides: An Epidemic sweeping India.” The report states that while the percentage of overall suicides taking place in the country has risen by 2 per cent, student suicides have risen by 4 per cent, even more disturbing, if you take into account that this is the figure despite likely underreporting, due to social stigma.

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In 2022, India recorded 1.71 lakh suicides according to NCRB data. The suicide rate per lakh population was 12.4 per cent, exceeding all previous recorded data since 1967.

A Lancet study reported that the numbers of death by suicide are some of the highest in the world and a large percentage of these occur in adults between the ages of 15-29. These are the years that are most impacted by academic pressure.

Even more disturbingly, the brightest young minds in our country seem to be falling prey to this grisly trend. So much so, that it has now been declared an epidemic? The model “Indian student” has been an aspirational figure across many countries and many cultures for several years now. They are known for their extreme work ethic, discipline, and academic prowess, especially in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. So much so that even social media is flooded with reels poking fun at how every Indian student excels at studying medicine, engineering, law, etc.

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Beneath this veneer of excellence lies a more sinister reality. In a developing economy such as ours, most feel that a career in demanding fields such as engineering or medicine, will provide consistent job opportunities, respect from peers, and of course the all-important financial stability. In a regimental society such as ours, where elders hold tremendous authority, Indian parents are known to be pushy, and often pressure their children into such high-pressure academic careers, whether or not they have the natural aptitude for it.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the extreme emphasis and value our society and the Indian education system places on competitive exams, such as JEE and NEET for engineering medicine, forcefully steers students towards choosing these paths. In many ways, schools and their curricula, condition students to believe these entrance exams are the only route worth pursuing, while only “losers” would opt for other streams. A young student and their family’s social currency in Indian society, whether in the country or abroad, is strangely dependent on whether they’re studying “science or engineering” as opposed to the arts or commerce, which are deemed inferior.

In such an environment, the expectations set by parents, schools, and society can be overwhelming for any young person, no matter how intelligent. Sadly, high academic potential can often be a curse, attracting even more societal pressure to continuously excel in this toxic environment that only values standardised examinations and rote memorisation.

So we are now stuck in this unique conundrum, where instead of channeling the younger generation’s brightest potential, positively and constructively in a way that adds value, the students who show the most promise early in their academic careers are now choosing to take their own lives.

As observed in Kota, a city famed for attracting elite Indian students with its intense and gruelling coaching centres and unblinkered pursuit of competitive exams, which is now infamous for the alarming number of student suicides that have taken place in the past few years.

The past few years have seen an entire industry of coaching institutes mushroom across the country, seducing young students with the promise of a shortcut to success in competitive exams such as JEE, NEET, Civil Services etc. In Kota alone, this coaching centre “industry” is rumoured to be worth around $500 million.

However, behind this mirror image of guaranteed success, lies a duplicitous reality. Like any other capitalist industry, it awards a few, the ultimate prize, at the cost of almost everyone else. It’s a jungle out there. Even before the examinations, competition at these coaching centers is fierce, study schedules are rigorous, living conditions are rough and so is the isolation, away from their families.  They are afraid to quit and go back home, often because of the large sums of money that their families have invested in “their shortcut to a golden future”.

An analysis of the student suicides found that most of the victims belonged to families from a middle or low-income group, who had taken the extreme step of suicide within the first six months of arriving at the coaching centre. Education systems cannot and should not be monetised or commercialised in such a way that defeats its very purpose: to promote learning in a way that empowers young people and encourages successful future generations who will lead and take our nation forward.

Feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy are common, as students struggle to constantly outperform their peers and live up to the unrealistic expectations set by society. The constant fear of letting down their families and teachers, and also what they perceive of themselves in society, takes an unbearably heavy toll on their mental health. This pressure cooker environment that is the norm in the Indian education system is what ultimately leads to these trends of depression and suicide amongst students.

Heartbreakingly, some students in their desperate search for an escape from this never-ending cycle of academic pressure and failure, resort to the ultimate cataclysm: suicide.

We are standing at a crucial crossroads right now, where all stakeholders, students and their families, educational institutions and policymakers need to make some major changes. Apart from basic steps like prioritising mental health, educational institutes need to start taking full accountability and be responsible for monitoring students’ mental health. Regular counselling sessions, accessible channels of communication, and check-ins should not only be made compulsory but also normalised. Teachers and professors should be well-trained to recognise signs of emotional distress and irregularities in students, and be empowered to take necessary steps.

The environment for students in the country needs to adapt to becoming more compassionate and supportive, because clearly something is going very wrong. Several educational experts have repeatedly emphasized on the importance of counselling parents who need to be made aware of their unrealistic expectations and pressure that is causing this spike in student suicides. This calls for a holistic change in the way we view our education system, starting right from the lower classes in school.

Schools should have counselling sessions for parents during parent teacher meetings, where they can be encouraged to take a positive approach to their child’s academic anxieties and how to deal with them productively and healthily. At the beginning of the year, alarmed by this gruesome trend, the Union Ministry of Education issued stringent guidelines, to be enforced by every state so that the functioning of these coaching centres can be regulated.

Institutes are now banned from taking on students below the age of 16 and cannot issue misleading advertisements guaranteeing placements and admissions. However, this does not seem to be enough, the matter is now serious enough for lawmakers to sit up, take notice, and make some major modifications to the educational landscape in India.

Parents and teachers, it’s time for you to take it up on yourselves to ensure that every student knows that success is not final and failure does not need to be fatal.

The author is a freelance journalist and features writer based out of Delhi. Her main areas of focus are politics, social issues, climate change and lifestyle-related topics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.