The recent spurt in student suicides shows up India with one of the world’s highest suicide rates in the age of 16-18. Kumar Chellappan talks to educationists & psychologists to bring you a lowdown on what’s happening in our educational institutes
A study conducted by Nimhans, Bangalore, in 2014 found that 11 per cent of college students and seven-eight per cent of High School students have attempted suicide. In the survey, 1,500 school and college students were studied. The number of students who committed suicide increased 26.58 per cent between 2012 and 2013, from 6,654 to 8,423, says the National Crime Records Bureau. The report also shows that Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka have had a consistently higher number of suicidal deaths in the last few years.
last year, in June, five students from Kota committed suicide in a month. While what happened in Chennai and Hyderabad may be different, there’s no denying the fact that there is a lot of stress and depression among students.
Rohith Vemula aka Mallik Chakravarthy was found dead in a friend’s hostel room in University of Hyderabad on the evening of January 17, 2016. Though this is not the first time that a student had committed suicide, the reason why Vemula’s suicide news spread like wildfire was because stories suggesting the involvement of a Union Minister from Telengana and the role of university authorities in pressurising Vemula to take the extreme step took root.
On January 23, 2016, three girl students (all 19) — V Priyanka, T Monisha and E Saranya, second-year students of SVS College of Yoga and Naturopathy at Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, committed suicide by jumping into a nearby farm well. Their suicide note says that they were resorting to the extreme step sue to the cruelty of college authorities.
Two students, Nagendra Reddy and Rahul J Prasad, had committed suicide in Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) in September and October 2015, respectively. The same year, three young college students Aathira, Arya and Raji of Konni in Kerala also committed suicide. The three girls were friends and colleagues. The news made headlines for a week in local newspapers and TV channels. By October, they were forgotten by all except their parents.
This is because in Tamil Nadu, students committing suicides in engineering colleges and private universities is almost routine. But these suicides or deaths do not find place in newspapers or TV channels as these institutions spend crores of rupees every year to buy the much needed silence from all concerned.
But deaths in Government-run universities, engineering colleges and IITs is definitely something that will find its way to the front pages as well primetime discussions on news channels. The SVS College of Yoga and Naturopathy claims to have an affiliation to the Government run Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, is reported to have charged exorbitant fees from the students and did not provide any infrastructure for their studies. But a probe proves that the college does not have any affiliation with the said Government-run university. But the website of Dr MGR Medical University still says it is affiliated to it. Vasuki Subramanian, the college owner, herself a former student, has been blamed for their deaths. Parents of the dead girls have accused the administration of charging ‘excess fees’ and resorted to ‘torture’.
Vemula’s suicide is said to be the result of depression caused by his suspension from the university on disciplinary grounds. But his suicide note says something different — in the alleged suicide note written by Vemula, he struck off a few lines in which he has blamed the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and the Students Federation Of India (SFI) for being power-hungry. It has no reference to the discrimination or witch hunting as alleged by the ASA, the organisation of which he was a leader.
Raju Gosala, a Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), says he has never encountered any discrimination because of his background. “I am doing my PhD in Management Studies here. I am yet to come across any kind of discrimination. What happened to Vemula is strange. A thorough probe should be ordered into the whole issue,” Gosala says.
An investigation should be ordered into the affairs of Ambedkar Students Association and Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle which has its head-quarters in IIT Madras, say many students in Chennai and Kochi. “These are all off-shoots sponsored by the extreme leftist organisations and Islamic terrorist organisations to spread anarchy in the campuses and to fight the Modi Government,” another Dalit student in UoH tells you. Interestingly, all these organisations made an appearance at the campuses after the lok Sabha elections of 2014.
There were reports of students (including Dalits) committing suicides from campuses all over the country much before Modi was sworn in Prime Minister. Prior to 2014, these reports were confined to inside pages of the news papers as single column reports. There was no uproar when Rajani S Anand, a third-year engineering college student at the Institute of Human Resource Development, Adoor in Kerala jumped to death from the seventh floor of the building that housed the Commissioner of Entrance Examination in June 2004 in Chennai. The reason for her suicide — she had no money to pay the fees and nationalised banks refused her application for an education loan.
The launching of ASA and Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) is a pre-planned move to create chaos and confusion among the campuses in the country, if one is to go by history. In 1959 Kerala’s EMS Namboodirippadu Ministry, world’s first democratically elected Communist Government was dismissed by the Centre under Article 352 of the Constitution.
The events which led to the dismiss of this ministry included an agitation by Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student wing of the Congress. The KSU, which was led by AK Antony at that time launched an agitation against the EMS Government demanding the reduction of bus fare and this gathered momentum. Meanwhile, the educational institutions managed by various Christian sects too joined the agitation which was known as the liberation Struggle and the Centre intervened citing law and order and got the EMS Government dismissed. later it was revealed that the liberation Struggle was funded by the CIA and the Vatican. Those were the days of Cold War and the term Communism was anathema to both the US and the Catholic Church. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former US ambassador to India has revealed all details about the liberation struggle in his book A Dangerous Place.
Students committing suicides is nothing new. There are many reasons behind this phenomenon. When the SSC results come out, there is an increase in the spate of suicides. Today’s highly competitive world has put pressure on the student community while they are not conditioned enough to face the new challenges, feel many clinical psychologists.
Prof BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan and educationist par excellence, who elevates students and listeners to a world of wisdom through his mesmerising speeches, didn’t want to the quoted. “It is too politicised now and I am not fit enough to talk about it. Don’t quote me,” was his comment. What he said is enough for the nation to understand how upset eminent academicians are over this issue because of the kind of games that are being played by politicians today.
Prof SP Thyagarajan, former VC, Madras University who is a highly revered educationist, is of the view that there has been an increase in the number of suicides reported from institutes of higher learning over the last two decades. Keeping politics aside, Prof Thyagrajan tells you that there is lack of dedicated, round the year mechanism in higher education institutions for integrated students’ counselling services through professionals, on campus and off campus mentoring service along with a career guidance and placement services. Today, these are only on paper and white washed during inspections and accreditation visits,” he says.
Dr Mridula B Nair, former principal, MG College, Thiruvananthapuram, also a reputed clinical psychologist, is quite blunt in her comments. “The reason lies with us, the parents and the teaching community. We do not teach our children how to accept even small failures in life. Getting admission in medical and engineering colleges is a status symbol for the students as well as the parents. The parents do not bother about the aptitude of their children while doling out crores to get admission for the MBBs course,” Prof Nair says.
She points out that when the students find themselves in a position inferior to the intelligent students, they lose hope. “Add to this, the parental pressure and they are left with no option other than suicide as they do not have the mental strength to face failures and setbacks,” she tells you.
Another reason is lack of true friends in one’s life. “When we had no Internet or mobiles, there were true and sincere friends. But modern day friends are not real in nature, they are virtual. The present generation is controlled by Facebook friends and in most cases they are fake and dubious,” she says.
Most of the students who join engineering and medical courses under the management quota are not as intelligent as the ones who made it through qualification marks and entrance tests. “This will be reflected in their studies as they are competing against the best brains. They develop a kind of hatred for their parents who pressurised them to join the course in which they are not comfortable. As an act of revenge they take the extreme step. This could be prevented only through counselling which I am sure will make the students see the writing on the wall,” Prof Nair who after retirement, is now the principal of a college run by a Dalit organisation. “Here I am working with Dalit students, encouraging and inspiring them,” she says.
MK Kunhol, a well-known Dalit leader, who was an MBBS student of Kozhokode Medical College during 1960 to 1962, gave up studying medicine since he could not clear the examinations in the stipulated time. “I was not that good in my studies. In fact, I joined the course after the first term,” Kunhol says stressing on the point that no one but he alone was responsible for this decision. “When I saw that my colleagues and juniors graduated to senior classes, I opted out. At no point of time, I had encounter discrimination for being a Dalit,” he tells you rubbishing talk of discrimination against the Dalits in institutions of higher learning. “We are living in an era of instant communications and real-time news transmission with media houses vying to get top ratings. I do not believe such allegations,” he tells you. Even back when Kunhol was in college there was no discrimination.
“In 1959 when I contested as a student councillor in Maharajas College, Ernakulam, then considered as a fortress of the Varmas, Nairs and Menons, I polled 75 per cent of the total votes and defeated my nearest rival who was a Nair. I did not face any discrimination in my life,” Kunhol says.
Dr lakshmi Vijayakumar, a medical doctor who runs Sneha, a suicide prevention centre says that the present generation is incapable of controlling anger and emotions and this is the reason for suicides. “We have to train them to handle negative emotions. My request to the media is to not sensationalise any news on suicides. It will create ripples which lead to more suicides,” Dr Vijayakumar says, adding that the root cause of all suicides is depression, grief, shock, peer pressure and disappointment. “We have to make the youth resistant to all these factors,” she says.
Prof Thygarajan has been suggesting to the authorities for developing an “aptitude-based flexible models of higher education curricula and model”, which would help students and their parents in selecting professional courses in which the students have a natural flavour. To take care of students who are not as intelligent as those who score ranks and higher grades, Prof Thygarajan proposes special parallel courses. “We need well-structured slow-learners remedial programmes as parallel courses to the needy students without stigmatising that they are only for Dalit(SC/ST) students. Book banks for SC/ST earmarked in libraries should be re-designated as book bank for economically weaker sections,” suggests Prof Thyagarajan.
In addition to these measures, he points out that the Dalit students themselves should have the self-esteem and self-respect. “All Dalits should demonstrate their power of self-esteem by feeling proud that they are Dalits and contributing towards the country’s development,” Prof Thyagarajan says.
How seeds of unrest were sown among students
Education is the foundation of any nation. If we have a good education system, then half the battle is won as far as the country’s development is concerned. Unfortunately, in India, the education system has many ills that need to be addressed at the earliest. India has had a lot of student leaders like Jaiprakash Narayan. In the 60s and the 70s, idealism prevailed but from late 70s, the quality of student politics has declined.
Many opine that the recent spurt of suicides by students in Chennai and Hyderabad is due to the involvement of certain political parties in using the student community to make political gains. It all began with the Congress making use of students in Kerala during the 1957-59 liberation Struggle to bring down the EMS Namboodirippadu Government, the world’s first democratically elected Communist Government.
The 1967 elections in Kerala resulted in the CPI(M) forming a Government for the second time in alliance with Muslim league, CPI and some other smaller parties. The Congress-led students under the banner of Kerala Students Union, launched agitations which turned violent at many places. An agitation at Ernakulam was the game changer.
A group of violent Kerala Students Union (KSU) activists belonging to Sacred Church College were charged by the police and some students got injured. In the list of the injured was a Gujarati student Mulgee. Mathrubhumi, one of the leading Malayalam papers, misreported that a student named Murali has been injured in the melee. Unfortunately there was a student by name Murali in the same college who had a congenital heart problem. He passed away the following day and the entire student community came out on the streets demanding EMS Government’s dismissal.
There were not many newspapers those days and satellite TV channels were unheard of. By the time an enquiry commission which could come out with its findings that Murali was nowhere near the place where the lathicharge took place, the EMS Government had fallen.
The anti-Hindi agitation launched by the Dravidian parties in early 1960s too had students as the main protagonists. Hundreds died in the agitation resulting in the ouster of Congress from power in 1967. The party has not tasted power in the State since then and acts as second fiddle to one of the Dravidian giants.
The present Dalit agitation, according to Dr S Kalyanaraman of Saraswathi Research Centre, Chennai, is promoted by a powerful axis. “The Marxist-Missionary-Mulla axis has devastated the educational system of post-colonial India sowing confusion in the young minds about their identity and heritage. Dharma education should be included in the school curricula at all levels to undo the damage done to the psyche of the youth who are our treasure and the future of the nation,” the Indologist tells you. There is some truth in what Dr Kalyanaraman says.
The Ambedkar Periyar Study Centre in IIT Madras makes it a point to screen anti-India documentaries like India Untouched -Stories of a People Apart which shows priest Batuprasad Sharma Shastri justifying Chaaturvarnya. Stalin K, who directed the documentary, is silent on other details about Shastri. An enquiry at Varanasi revealed that Shastri has gone senile. His son has said that his father is mentally unstable and the maker was cheating the family by taking the interview. It is these kinds of documentaries which antagonise the students against the Indian culture and the system.
