MP left shaken by a spate of school suicides

“I quit.” The two heartbreaking words that devastated a couple in Bhopal will reverberate in their minds for the rest of their lives.

Divyansh Agrawal, a Class VII student of an elite English medium school in the city, typed the two words, perhaps the shortest suicide note ever, in his laptop before hanging himself in his room.

He apparently chose to die rather than face his parents after failing in his class tests.

Another tender life was snuffed out, 12 in a month in MP, due to pressure to perform in academics.

The growing trend of school kids ending their lives owing to exam related stress in the state in recent times has left academicians, psychologists and parents bewildered and stupefied.

According to National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) statistics, there has been a huge jump of over 240 per cent in cases of suicide by students in MP in the past decade.

NCRB figures show that there has been a steady rise in suicides, from 199 in 2005 to 625 in 2015.

As many as 5325 students ended their lives in the state during the period. One student commits suicide in MP every 16 hours.

That chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan makes it a point to address students on the day when results of Classes X and XII are out every year, asking them not to worry about their performances, is a pointer to the gravity of the situation.

Mr Chouhan has declared that those who put mental pressure on students to do well in examinations would be dealt like criminals. The MP Assembly has also constituted a Legislative committee to interact with experts across the globe to find ways to save students from embracing death in such a cruel manner.

Even the Catholic church in MP, which has described the situation as “precarious”, has come forward with the offer of counseling stressed students by trained counselors. MP Board of Secondary Education, which has started a helpline service to counsel distressed students, decided to extend the service from 12 hours to 16 hours a day in 2016.

“Around 800 students stressed over results called up MPBSE within 24 hours of announcement of the Class X results this year. They wanted to know about ways to cope up with the pressure of failure. These students had found it tough to face their families after failing the examination,” one of the counselors at the helpline told this newspaper.

“The students have developed a tendency of losing patience easily. The key reasons that drive them to commit suicide include peer pressure, high expectations among parents, education being more demanding, growing communication gap between parents and students and also students and teachers,” said psychologist Ms Sushmita Singh.

“More cases of suicides came from private schools than from government schools. That means education is more demanding in private schools than government schools,” said Mr Satyendra Tripathy, a counselor, adding, “Change in lifestyle including food habits, excessive use of social media, mobile addiction too has added further mental pressure on children.”

The night before she was to appear for her English paper, Deepika, a Class XII student, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room. Her suicide note read, “Papa, I cannot score good marks in English. I am going away.”

She too quit.

Student suicides in MP. Year - Nos 2011 – 451 2012 – 595 2013 - 667 2014 - 645 2015 - 625