Suicides in Indian educational institutions

IN NEWS:

• According to data shared in the Parliament, as many as 61 students from premier educational institutes such as IITs, IIMs and NITs have died by suicide over the past five years.

STATISTICS:

• In 2021, the Union government informed Parliament that 34 student deaths were reported from IIT campuses from 2014 to 2021. In the same report, it was mentioned that five students were from Scheduled Castes and 13 from Other Backward Classes.
• According to National Crime Records Bureau data, student suicides saw an increase of 4.5 per cent in 2021, attributed in a large measure to the Covid pandemic and related anxieties

REASONS BEHIND SUICIDES:

• Failure to recognise the issue:
  • In India, the phenomenon of suicide is constantly individualised or personalised, allowing society to escape accountability.
  • Eg: More students died by suicide than farmers in 2020, yet, while farmers’ suicides are widely recognised as a crisis in India, students’ suicides go unnoticed.

• Academic distress:
  • The rise of individualism and neo-liberalistic ideology has pushed the youth to blame themselves for their failure to secure good grades and jobs. This creates fear, lack of self esteem and depression, which ultimately lead to suicides.
• Discrimination:
  • Students experience gender and caste discriminations in the education institutions. This degrades their self-respect and motivation.
  • Also, those who share experiences of discriminations in educational institutions get accused of being ‘over-sensitive’, which contributes to the further marginalisation.
• Rise in mental health concerns:
  • In India, children are discouraged to undertake physical activities. This can affect their mental health and can cause psychological problems such as dementia and depression.
  • As per the National Mental Health Survey 2015-16, 9.8 million teenagers in the age group 13-17 years suffer depression.
• Lack of family support:
  • The largest cause of suicide in the age group of under 18 years is “family problems.” This could be attributed to the lack of emotional support within the family, especially in nuclear families.
• Stigma:
  • Many with mental-health problems remain deprived of treatment due to fear of social stigma and social ostracism associated with the disorder.
• Poor awareness:
  • Common man lacks basic awareness about mental illness. This results in delayed treatment seeking behaviour and social isolation of people suffering from mental disorder.
• Shortage of mental healthcare facilities:  
  • There are only about 43 mental hospitals with less than 26,000 hospital beds are dedicated to mental healthcare in the country, and most of them are in disarray.
  • WHO reports that there are only 3 psychiatrists per million people in India, while in other Commonwealth countries, the ratio is 5.6
• Competitive market:
  • Coaching centres have emerged as one of the predominant industries in the education sector. However, these centres have little regard for the student’s mental wellbeing.
• Underreporting:
  • There is widespread under-reporting of the phenomenon due to social stigma and the accompanying legal consequences. This results in the matter going unrecognised as a social issue.
• Makeshift solutions:
  • Measures to address suicides in campus often fail to address the root causes such as discrimination and academic pressure.
  • Eg: To deal with the issue of students hanging themselves in their hostels, premier institutions and coaching centres came up table fans or ceiling fans that cannot hold more than 40 kg of weight.

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS:

• Mental Healthcare Act, 2016:
  • It provides the legal framework for providing services to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of people with mental illnesses.
  • It gives every person the right to access mental healthcare from services operated or funded by the government.
  • It decriminalises suicide attempt under the section 309 (attempt to commit suicide) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
  • A person with mental illness shall have the right to make an advance directive i.e. how he wants to be treated for the illness and who his nominated representative shall be.
  • Prohibits electro-convulsive therapy on minors
• National Mental Health Policy, 2014:
  • Its key objectives include Universal access to mental health care, reduce risk and incidence of suicide and attempted suicide and reduce stigma associated with mental health problems, among other.
• National Suicide Prevention Strategy:
  • The goal of the strategy is to reduce suicide mortality in the country by 10 per cent by 2023.
• 'Manodarpan' initiative
  • Launched by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
  • It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.
  • The platform includes a national toll-free helpline for students of schools, universities and colleges, which will be manned by a pool of experienced counsellors, psychologists and mental health professionals.
• KIRAN helpline:
  • A 24×7 toll-free number to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns.
• National Mental Health Programme (NMHP)
  • It aims to improve the status of mental health in India. It has 3 components:
    • Treatment of mentally ill
    • Rehabilitation
    • Prevention and promotion of positive mental health
• District Mental Health Program (DMHP)
  • It was launched under NMHP
  • The DMHP was based on ‘Bellary Model’ with the following components:
    • Early detection and treatment.
    • Training: imparting short-term training to general physicians for diagnosis and treatment of common mental illnesses with limited number of drugs under guidance of specialist. The health workers are being trained in identifying mentally ill persons.
    • Public awareness generation
    • Monitoring
• Other initiatives:
  • De-addiction centres and rehabilitation services
  • Swachh Mansikta Abhiyan:
    • A campaign to make people generate awareness among masses on mental health

WAY FORWARD:

• Recognise the issue:
  • Suicide should be viewed as a multidimensional public and mental health issue, having complex interactions with the economic, social, cultural, psychological and biological realms of individual and society.
• Improve awareness:
  • Incorporating mental health into the educational curriculum.
  • Workshops for student and faculty to identify the warning signs of suicide and how to support someone suffering from mental health issues.  
• Improve student-faculty ratio:
  • Interaction between faculty and student needs to be improved. For this, the number of students under a faculty needs to be reduced. This should be supplemented by increase in funding and human resource such as in-campus councilors.
• Develop a strong community feeling:
  • There are enough scientific studies to show that the key to happiness lies in developing strong relationships and bonds. In this regard, NSS and NCC activities, community events, volunteering, support groups, and other activities that encourage social interaction need to be promoted.
• Make mental health services easily accessible:
  • Make it mandatory to maintain a certain ratio of students to counsellors and enforce it through regulations and accreditation/ranking processes.
  • Ensure that services are culturally sensitive and inclusive of diverse student populations.
  • Promote availability of and access to cost-effective treatment of common mental disorders at the primary health care level.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Multidimensional interventions are necessary to prevent suicides and mental health issues in Indian campuses. Discuss.