Visakhapatnam: The recent suicides of the two intermediate students (aged 16 and 17 years) of corporate junior colleges in Andhra Pradesh has highlighted the growing mental health crisis among the youth.
According to statistics, every day, at least one student dies by suicide in the state due to various reasons. Despite increased cases of student suicides and repeated suggestions from various organisations, private and corporate educational institutes in the state have failed to appoint part-time psychological counsellors to help students cope with stress and pressure.
The NCRB data says that a total of 3,690 students (profession-wise distribution of suicides), including 1,609 girls died by suicide in the AP from 2014 to 2022. This indicates a 72% rise rise in student suicide cases in the state between these years. While the data gives information regarding students (profession of the victims), it does not differentiate between students pursuing higher education vis-a-vis students pursuing school education. Although, the NCRB reports do not specifically break down the causes of student suicides, they do provide breakdowns by age group.
“There are thousands of corporate and private junior colleges and schools across the state. Most of the suicide cases and attempts are reported from corporate and private educational institutes. However, 99% of the schools and colleges in the state failed to hire psychological counsellors to ascertain mental conditions of the students,” said Gondu Sitaram, member of AP State Child Rights Protection Commission.
“The management of the corporate schools and colleges in the state thought that hiring counsellors is a waste of their money,” he added.
“Having psychological counsellors at educational institutes is necessary. The counsellors will help students deal with suicide tendencies, mitigate exam anxiety, and manage stress and depression,” said Dr NN Raju, a noted psychiatrist.
However, he opined that hiring of psychological counsellors is not the ultimate solution to mitigate student suicides, adding that parents, and teachers must also ease the stress of the students.
“Pressuring children to study hard has become a common trend in the society as most parents want their children to become engineers or doctors. Class-X and Class-XII (intermediate) students are under tremendous pressure both at home in schools and colleges,” the experts added.
AP state child rights commission chairman K Appa Rao said that the police department and the board of intermediate education have been ordered to submit a report on the death of a second-year intermediate student who had jumped from the roof of the college on Thursday.
“We have asked the colleges to recruit counsellors to reach out to the students who are in distress and have issues. State govt’s Public Safety Act of 2013 makes the stakeholders accountable for the law and order in their premises. Colleges should take this issue seriously as it could prevent hundreds of deaths every year,” said Appa Rao.
Experts and police department officials said unhealthy competition and peer pressure were prime reasons for student suicides in the state. “It is important to note that kids, who eventually kill themselves, do give early indications of their intention to die. Hence it is imperative that parents and teachers are well trained to predict the risk before the tragedy occurs,” they added.
While, the NCRB data shows that a total of 575 students, including 232 females died by suicide in the state in 2022, the data for 2023-24 is yet to be released.
