In a sad turn of events, ministry of social justice and empowerment informed the Parliament on Tuesday that as many as 35,950 died by suicide in 2019, 2020, and 2021 in the country. This information was shared by Union Minister of State for social justice and Empowerment, Abbaiah Narayanswamy.
This was shared in reply to the question regarding the number of Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe students who had committed suicide due to social discrimination faced by them. Abbaiah further added that there is no information regarding the number of SC and ST students who took the step due to the aforementioned reasons.
The minister, however added that as per the NCRB data, the number of students increased from 10,335 in 2019, 12,526 in twenty and 13,089 in 2021.
The question comes amidst reports of a few students from underprivileged backgrounds dying by suicide in some premier educational institutions on account of either not being able to cope with the academic pressure or discrimination by students or faculty.
The comment section of a popular Instagram news handle, The Tatva, was filled by mixed opinions on the matter. Some of the people put the blame on the reservation system with one user commenting that had it not been for reservation, students who are not able to cope up with the difficult curriculum would not have made to the elite institutions and thereby wouldn’t have succumbed to the pressure inside them.
However, another set of users pointed out how casteism is still prevalent in the Indian society as despite addressing the issue of mental health of students, limelight is being shunned on the reservation policy of the state.
These are indeed tough times to be a student in the nation owing to the already pre existing social expectations and we hope that all the students in our nation are able to survive the fight and make the world a better place for the next generation to live in.
