Youth, who are believed to be the future of the nation, are losing faith when a single moment went against them. We ask Why?
It’s the moment when a mother sees the dead body of her beloved son who couldn’t face the bare truth of life, it’s the moment when a father sees his dear daughter lose when things went against her, and it’s the moment where life dies.
The world lives on the principles where the fittest survives and is this reason why some youth who face one atrocity in life decide to end it? Is it that they feel that they are not fit for this highly competitive world? Why
one failure makes youth take steps which not only affect them but many around them? Is the feeling so humiliating and intense that dying seems a better option than life?
Today, the youth of India form one of the most vulnerable and psychologically fragile groups, who on one hand are expected to be the leaders, the backbone of tomorrow’s India while on the other hand they form a browbeaten and baffled cluster. But the question here to be asked is whether the problem is in the individual or the system is responsible for youth losing faith in life. The answer is both. Lack of self-belief and a system where only winners are accepted has spurted the cases of youth suicides. If we clearly observe the problem of youth suicides there seems to be a common reason for youth suicides in India. There is a cluster of suicides when there is a season of results or admissions. Does this mean that we must stop taking examinations or admissions to premier institutes must be offered on first come first serve basis? NO, the problem is not with the examination or the admission procedure the problem is in the way our society thinks. Today in most of the houses of India parents decide what their child has to do rather than letting the child decide what he aspires to be. This imposed target starts to haunt the child, parents start overestimating the child, there is competition among friends and there is pressure from teachers, which indeed intensify the fear of failure and in the end the child collapses.
Suicide rates in India are alarming enough to attract the attention of the government. A report released by the Ministry of Health in 2006 says an average of five and a half thousand commit suicide every year. Official report says that student suicides increased by 26% in the five years from 2006 to 2010. These stats make it prerogative for the government to take concrete steps by incorporating changes in the education system, which already is initiated. Vice-chancellor of Ambedkar University, Delhi said “The examination system and the selection process for institutions of higher education weigh heavily on young people. The volume of students passing out of the school education system and vying for admission to tertiary education has dramatically increased over the years, with competition levels increasing too. At a time when higher education can result in social mobility, the stakes are very high. Today, there is a greater link between employability and higher education.” A change in the system may certainly increase the opportunity of students and hence may cause lesser suicides. But along with system, parents are also responsible for this serious problem to a considerable extent. Psychiatrist Dr. Sanjay Chugh said told Times of India, “An inadequate system, coupled with lack of proper social support, pushes students over the brink.” “If a child's parents do not add to the pressure that the education system puts on him, chances are his stress levels will never cross the threshold for suicide” he added.
Though the Government has come forward to protect the dying future; parents, teachers and the victims themselves must cooperate. Teachers and parents must find signs of depression in students and help the one who are the needful. Parents must limit their role to mentors and not masters in deciding the career of their child.
Parents must encourage their child to perform well in exam but should not highlight this as the deciding point between life and death.
Suicide attempters must think and rethink if it is the last way to solve the problem. They must understand that in the process of killing themselves they are killing various relationships such as a father, a mother, a sister, a brother and a friend. One must understand the value of life and believe in the miracles it can perform even after failure in some exam. Killing is not the solution.
