Student Suicides on the Rise in India

Bangalore: Around twenty students take their lives in the country every day, and every 10 minutes someone in this country commits suicide, say studies. The recent case of student suicides, one in Gurgaon and the other in Bangalore, again highlights the harsh question: Are our loved ones being given a suitable environment to grow?

As a matter of fact, psychiatrists say that there is often an underlying depression behind such cases, but a precise trigger could include a failed relationship, family pressures or studies, adding to the confusion of adolescence, when hormones are already hay-wire. Several psychiatrists are of the opinion that disturbed teenagers have trouble dealing with relationship stress.

As the nation mourns the loss of Dana Sangma, the northeast student who allegedly committed suicide after being caught with a mobile phone during an exam, reminds us that this wasn’t the first incident of student suicide. Previously the mysterious death of Richard Loitam, a Manipuri student in Bangalore and Jakio Heisnam, another Manipuri student further brings the focus on discrimination, and racial profiling.

Other reports further revealed that on an average, at least one suicide takes place every week in Gurgaon. While the data is alarming enough, police records don't even account for the large and rising number of attempted suicides. Are student suicides inevitable in stressful urban life or does it indicate how little we care for mental health?