Sun, Feb 07, 2010 The New Paper
Worry over high student suicide rate in India EDUCATORS in India are worried over an increasing figure - that of the rising suicide rate among adolescents. Its main cause? The pressure to do well in school, said a Times of India (TOI) report. And the pressure is not from teachers but from parents,the report added. India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and recent studies suggest about 40 percent are adolescents. At least 125 people aged 29 years or below are committing suicide every day and 51 per cent of the total suicide victims are graduates, college students or younger. In several cases, students commit suicide after failing exams, according to local newspaper reports. In Mumbai alone, 25 students have taken their lives since beginning of the year, leaving parents, teachers and officials struggling to understand the reason behind the deaths. High marks, college admissions Mr Mahesh Poddar is one such grieving parent as his daughter, Mini, committed suicide in 2001 when she was 15 years old. She was distraught about college admissions and had just missed out on getting into the college of her choice. Union human resource minister Kapil Sibal said that the sudden spike in suicides among students is a result of the growing parental pressures on the child to beat his peers, said TOI. In many cases, the trigger appears to be academic pressure, said a report in CNN. India's education system is based on rote learning, or memorisation, with a strong emphasis on scoring high marks. Authorities are organising counselling sessions, said MrSanjay Kumar, education secretary of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai is located. The suicides were a wake-up call for educators, said Mrs Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Vidyala, a government school in North Mumbai. Though none of the recent suicide cases in the city involved students from her school, she is worried. Recently, a student from her school ran away from home before exams. She said: "As teachers, we have a lot of effect on the students, even more than parents have." This article was first published in The New Paper. ------------------------
NDTV updates,
New Delhi: Fifteen suicides take place every hour in India and a majority (69.2 per cent) of the suicide victims are married while 30.8 per cent un-married, according to latest government statistics. One suicide out of every 5 is committed by a housewife, said the statistics released today in the form of a report. "It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicide whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives," the report, released by Home Minister P Chidambaram, said. Over 41 percent of suicide victims were self-employed while only 7.5 per were un-employed. More than one lakh persons (1,34,599) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2010 and nearly 70.5 per cent of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0 per cent were married females, according to the report of the National Crime Record Bureau for 2010. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh accounted for 65.8 per cent of suicide victims in the age group 60 years and above. Suicides because of 'family problems' (23.7 per cent) and 'illness' (21.0 per cent) combined accounted for 44.7 per cent of total suicides, said the report. The percentage of suicides due to 'property dispute' and 'death of dear person' showed a relatively higher increase of 48.0 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively. The overall male:female ratio of suicide victims for the year 2009 was 65:35. However, the proportion of boys:girls suicide victims (up to 14 years of age) was 52:48. Among 25 cities, Jabalpur has reported the highest rate of 41.5 and Kolkata reported the lowest rate at 2.1. The pattern of suicides reported from 35 cities showed that 'hanging' (44.5 per cent), 'poisoning' (20.6 per cent) and 'fire/self-immolation' (12.6 per cent) were the means used the suicide victims in the cities. There is a significant increase in the number of suicides (136.5 per cent) in Patna (from 63 in 2009 to 149 in 2010) while Dhanbad showed a sharp decline of 60.5 per cent (from 152 suicides in 2009 to 60 suicides in 2010). The suicide rate in cities (12.7) was higher as compared to All-India suicide rate (11.4). Tamil Nadu has reported significant increase in suicides (16,561) in 2010 over 2009 (14,424) (an increase of 14.8 per cent) followed by Maharashtra (from 14,300 in 2009 to 15,916 in 2010), the report said. The highest number of mass/family suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20), out of 109 cases. 33.1 per cent of the suicide victims consumed poison, 31.4 per cent died by hanging, 8.8 per cent by fire/self-immolation and 6.2 per cent by drowning. The trend of suicide by hanging has been mixed during last three years (32.2 per cent in 2008, 31.5 per cent in 2009 and 31.4 per cent in 2010) while suicide by poisoning has shown decreasing trend in 2007 and 2008 (34.8 per cent in 2008, 33.6 per cent in 2009 and 33.1 per cent in 2010). Bengaluru (1,778), Chennai (1,325), Delhi (1,242) and Mumbai (1,192) the four cities together have reported almost 40.5 per cent of the total suicides reported from 35 mega cities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. In 2006, 5,857 students — or 16 a day — committed suicide across India due to exam stress. And these are just the official figures [Source: TOI, March 2008, Report] 2. The study (conducted 10 years back) had found that 16 per cent of Mumbai students were depressed - that is 2 per cent more than the students in Boston. It also found that 8 percent of these were suicidal. 3. Today, 10 years later, researchers say things could be worse. - Statistics show that India has the highest suicide rate in the world, marginally behind China, but ahead of the west - 95-100 people commit suicide in India every day - And of these a whopping 40% are in the adolescent age group [Source: CNN-IBN Report, Jan 13 2010] 4. Crime Records Bureau figures show India’s suicide rate has risen 8 per cent a year for 10 years. According to a 2007 estimate, 45 per cent of suicides involve people between 15 and 29. And WHO lists suicide among the top three causes of death in the age group 15-35. 5. The motive when students kill themselves is invariably academic pressure - this accounts for 99 per cent suicides in the age group 12-18 - but psychiatrists sought to assess why the trend has risen of late and put it down to three reasons: deprivation of sunshine, exam results, and the copycat syndrome. 6. Distressed teenagers account for 70 per cent of the phone calls to a helpline run by NGO Aasra, says founder Johnson Thomas. [Source: Express India, Jan 10 2010] 7. The leading mental health institution in India, the National Institute of Mental Health and Mental Sciences in Bengaluru, has been involved in several studies to understand why the rates of people taking their own lives, particularly younger people, are on the rise. 8. In the last formal study conducted in 2007, the Institute found that 122,637 people ended their own lives and for every successful act, it estimated that 8-10 attempts go unreported. 9. Nearly three-fourths of those taking their own lives were aged 16-45 years. 10. Bengaluru topped the list of cities where the largest number had taken place, followed by Chennai. In New Delhi data collected from 1,205 adolescents (aged 12-19 years) in two schools revealed that, on average, one in seven adolescents had thought about ending their life. 11. A lack of methods to help identify youngsters at risk further hinders prevention efforts. [Source: Guardian, Jan 28 2010] 12. Since the start of 2010, more than 20 students have killed themselves in Mumbai, India’s financial capital [Source: Asia News, Jan 19 2010]
No comments:
Post a Comment