STUDENT SUICIDES IN INDIA.

 

In our country India, a person’s worth is determined by the ranks and marks he gets in an exam. This is the bitter truth. But is it really fair to judge a person based on the marks in some random exam? Parents force their kids to study harder to get into those fancy colleges like IITs, nits, aims etc. But they don’t understand that only some people can get good grades while others get average marks. Some may even fail the exam. Failure is a part of life. Parents should understand that they should prepare their children for failure. They should tell them that it is ok to fail.  Life is not always about winning. It’s more about experiencing failures and learning lessons from it.

Exams are just a small part of life. If you don’t become an engineer or doctor, it doesn’t mean the end of the world. You can pursue other careers. There are so many opportunities out there, but Indian parents want only IITs and AIIMS for their children. Indian students are one of the most depressed in the world.  Suicide rates are increasing. Indian parents’ obsession with engineers and doctors should stop. Society cannot run on just engineers and doctors. We need businessmen, entrepreneurs, teachers, lawyers, managers,  etc.

When we have a huge population and so much competition, you cannot expect your child to get into a good college so easily. First, ask whether your child is really interested in engineering or medicine, or they want to do something else. What is the child passionate about?  Don’t force your unfulfilled dreams of becoming an engineer or doctor onto your children. Let them live like free human beings. Guide them, encourage them, but don’t force them into doing something they do not like.

Also, the major contributor to student suicide is the lack of mental health awareness in schools and colleges. In developed countries all schools and colleges have a mental health counselor or a psychologist to deal with the problems that students are going through. Humans are emotional beings and it is very important that mental health receives proper attention while a person is growing up.  Sadly, in our country, our government, colleges, and schools have no concept of mental health counseling. Teachers and parents always talk about marks as if students are robots that are created to get good marks. This must change.