Why are student suicides at all time high?

Depressed with her academic performance, an IIT Patna student committed suicide last week by jumping from the roof of her hostel building.
Seven suicides in the last eight months at the IITs has caused shock, triggered worry and prompted action. The government has now proposed setting up a task force to study the situation and suggest systemic measures to address the issue.
Entering college can be a difficult transition period in which students may feel lonely, confused, anxious and most importantly stressed leading to depression and consequently suicide (in some cases). However, is academic pressure the sole trigger for students to end their lives?
Ankur Bansal, who went to Indian School of Business, Hyderabad explains that once you get admission, the ugly game begins. In some high rung institutes only a fraction of those who apply get admitted and given the super stringent entry filters only the best of the best get selected to study there.

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He says, “What exactly happens is that people who have been toppers all through their lives face competition from all directions. It’s then that they realise that they are average in this league and sometimes below average. For example, if you have 10 people standing in a queue, somebody will have to be 10th, 9th and so on, and the hard reality is that this 10th guy is not dumb. He has been a super student all this while, but gets reduced to a piece of junk in this set-up. A lot of students can’t come to terms with this and take the extreme step.”
Most companies who come to to these institutes to recruit only want to hire from the top 10 per cent, while these recruiters are “Dream Companies” for the whole class.
“Students get coached for many years and get into the course. The course itself is very demanding and they are just not able to cope with the stress of studies and recruitment process. In some cases, they also don’t understand English and that leads to further stress. Hard work alone is not enough to go through the strenuous course,” says Durgadas Sampath, an ex-IITian and IIM post graduate, who is now helming affairs at Pegasus Institute of Excellence, Bengaluru.
Ankush Thakur entered Bhartiya Vidyapeeth College of Engineering with a lot of expectations and dreams. As it turned out, education, like every other business enterprise, also has skeletons in its closet.
Says Ankush, “I found colleges taking on inexperienced and unenthusiastic teachers for low wages. I was frustrated in my search for knowledge. Instead, it seemed as if my college was a giant bus choke-full of passengers, hurtling down an incline whose destination was ‘placement in IT industry’.”
Expert take
Dr Rajat Mitra, psychologist
The only solution is to create a compassionate environment devoid of any discrimination and inequality of any sort. The student bodies must facilitate student-student, teacher-student bond so that all the stress generated is instantly absorbed. These are the two essentials for any world-class university to control the number of suicides.
Who is in the eye of the starry storm?
Actor Darshan is not only in the news for his arrest for alleged domestic violence, but also for his “affair” with co-star Nikita Thukral.
Strangely, the Kannada Film Producers’ Association slapped a three-year ban on the actress, claiming that her actions have brought disrepute to Darshan and his family. Now what has got rights groups crying foul is that only Nikita was accused of creating marital disharmony and has been punished for the real-life drama, while Darshan still enjoys the adulation and status of a hero and has got a clean chit from the Association.
When is the camel fair slated to start
By the end of this month, the peaceful lakeside town of Pushkar fills to bursting during this unmissable annual event.
Originally intended to attract camel and cattle traders to do business during the Katrik Purnima festival, Pushkar Camel Fair has grown into a major tourist attraction. Thousands flock with their camels to the small town on the edge of the Thar Desert, a week in advance of the fair, which lasts for nine days around the full moon.
The highlight is the camel racing, which takes place amidst singing and dancing in the amphitheatre. In addition, camels sporting ornamental saddles are bought and sold. At festival time the streets are overrun with tourists, travellers, hawkers, painted and bizarrely contorted sadhus.
Where is torrential rain wreaking havoc
Heavy flooding in the eastern parts of the country has killed 18 people and displaced almost 100,000 over the past week. Access to 877 villages was cut off due to rising water levels and 11,000 houses had been damaged. The floods were triggered by torrential monsoon rains across Orissa, causing water levels to rise and overflow river banks, sparking an operation that saw helicopters drop off emergency food packets to help the stranded.
What can be done to popularise the national game, hockey, which lags far behind cricket in popularity?
Shantanu Mehra (21):
The entire business of cricket in India follows core concepts of capitalism for profit-making. Indian hockey deserves more media attention and better sponsors. It will not only revive the sport, but will reinforce the great legacy and popularity the game had once upon a time.
Nishant Mehta (22):
Hockey is our national game, but unfortunately, unlike cricketers, hockey players are not taken care of. It’s high time the government invested more time and money in the game so that the players are encouraged to excel.