BENGALURU: More than 12,500 students died by suicide in the country in pandemic-hit 2020 at a rate of more than 34 a day, with many states reporting more than one death daily.
According to the latest suicides data, the number of such deaths last year saw an increase of more than 21% compared to 2019. Analysis of data since 1995 shows that India lost more than 1.8 lakh students to suicides, of which the most were recorded in 2020, a year that had lesser examination pressure compared to any other year given that most students were promoted without exams.
Of the 12,526 student suicides in 2020, nearly 53% or 6,598 were from just six states — Maharashtra, Odisha, MP,
Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Karnataka — while all other states and Union territories together reported 5,928 deaths. Analysing the trend over the years shows that between 1995 and 1999 student suicides accounted for more than 5.2% of all suicides on average.
‘Academic challenges could also be trigger’Data shows that between 1995 and 1999 student suicides accounted for over 5.2% of all suicides, with 1995 (6.6%) being the worst year; during 2000-2009, only one year saw student suicides making up for more than 5%.
During 2010-2014, the last two years saw such cases make up more than 6% and every year thereafter has seen such cases account for more than 6%. While student suicides accounted for 7.4% of the 1.3 lakh total suicides in 2019, they account for 8.2% of the 1.5 lakh total suicides in 2020.
Stressing the need for a detailed study, psychiatrists and experts TOI spoke to said that stress or anxiety that eventually led to deaths could have been triggered by a variety of issues, including Covid, unexpected changes in circumstances — social, economical and within the family — and academic challenges arising from new ways of learning.
Dr
John Vijay Sagar
, professor and HoD, child and adolescent psychiatry, Nimhans, said: “Suicides don’t happen suddenly. In most of these cases, the students would have faced problems earlier too. The fact that the unprecedented circumstances the pandemic brought in would have meant they had to cope with additional stress and anxiety. Most children/students spent time at home by themselves, except in families where parents too could work from home. This means their coping mechanisms would have got affected with venting systems, like friends and school/college environment being absent.” He added that family conflicts that students would not have noticed would have come to the fore with everybody staying at home.
Dr
MS Dharmendra
, consultant psychiatrist,
Manasa Neuropsychiatric Hospital
, said: “Students were restricted to homes because of the lockdown which caused a sudden change in their routines. Ability to cope with changes determines how they progressed in their studies as not everyone would be able to learn online. I’ve seen students whose performance had declined...”
(If you are having suicidal thoughts or in need of emotional support, call suicide prevention helplines: Arogya Vani 104, Sahay Helpline
: 25497777)
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