Student Suicides Rates: The Supreme Court established the national task force under Justice S Ravindra Bhat in order to face recent incidents of student suicides due to alleged psychological problems in higher educational institutions. This measure, according to the bench, has become necessary after observing that above student suicides, there have been incidents of farmers committing suicides to agrarian distress.
The bench noted that Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan commented on different suicide cases occurring in the institutions of higher learning around the country.
“The recurring instances of student suicides in higher educational institutes, including private educational institutes, serve as a grim reminder of inadequacy and ineffectiveness of the present legal and institutional apparatus to grapple with campus mental health concerns and avert the extreme step of committing suicides by students. This tragedy highlights the urgent need for a more robust, comprehensive, and responsive mechanism able to provide for the variety of pressures that compel certain students to take their own lives,” said the bench on Monday.
Task Force Created to Find out the Cause of Students Death
This 10-member task force draws people from a variety of fields and disciplines to introduce an interdisciplinary approach to the question of suicide prevention in the higher educational institution.
The Task Force would prepare a detailed report mapping the perceived causes common to suicide by students, including ragging, caste-based discrimination, gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, academic pressure, economic burden, stigma to mental health, discrimination on any basis of race, tribal identity, disability, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religious belief, or other bases.
Further, it will conduct a detailed evaluation of how current laws, policies, and institutional frameworks operate in the field of higher educational institutions, whether any of them recognized the problems faced by students, and recommend areas of strengthening those protections.
“The Task Force shall recommend measures to reduce any such gaps and promote an inclusive and supportive environment while ensuring equal opportunities for all marginalised communities,” the Supreme Court stated.
The apex court made this remark in a judgment that overturned the decision of the Delhi High Court to quash petitions filed by parents of two IIT Delhi students who were allegedly dead by suicide and wanted FIRs registered in this respect.
The parents alleged that the students—Ayush Ashna and Anil Kumar—”were murdered with the conspiracy of IIT faculty members to hide the real facts, and both students have been falsely shown to have committed suicide”. The complaint claimed that the students, who belonged to Scheduled Caste, had informed their parents of caste discrimination by the faculty or staff of IIT Delhi, and accused the faculty of trying to protect the real culprits.
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The police have conducted their investigations but ruled out foul play, concluding that both students had committed suicide due to depression after failing some exams.
Ashna’s Grade Report shows that in the second-semester of 2022-2023, he had failed in five out of seven subjects, giving him a Grade F53-very poor according to police status report.
With regard to Kumar, police found that he passed all subjects in the first year, but on the other hand failed of two out of seven subjects in the third semester. After that, in the fourth semester, he had taken only one subject and failed in that. In the next year (2021-22)’s case, he did not pass any subject. In the seventh semester, he failed one subject out of six, while two subjects out of six in the eighth semester, therefore getting an extension to clear all subjects.
Police ‘jumped to conclusion’ without proper probe.
The Supreme Court, nonetheless, felt that the police were to have registered an FIR under section 154 of the code of criminal procedure with investigation under CrPC section 174 being inadequate.
The court has left the possibility open that the allegations could be a figment of imagination and that indeed, the police could have possibly been correct in their finding but only after registering an FIR and investigating.
“It is altogether a different thing to say that there is no element of truth in what has been alleged by the appellants in their respective complaints. It could just be a figment of their imagination. It could also be just a reflection of their anger towards the management as two young boys lost their lives.
Even if the police were of the view that there was no element of truth in what had been alleged by the appellants, it could have said so only after registering an FIR and conducting an investigation pursuant thereto. We say so because this is the law. The police could not have taken a shortcut just because something happened in the hostel of an eminent educational institution like IIT Delhi,” said the bench.
The bench added, “It seems that the Police very quickly jumped to the conclusion that the two boys were in some sort of depression as they were not doing well in their studies. Such conclusion of the Police may as well be correct.
However, again, at the cost of repetition, we say that such a conclusion could have been arrived at only after following the due process of law, i.e., registration of an F.I.R. and investigation. Nobody would have stopped the Police from filing an appropriate closure report saying that no case is made out. However, to close the entire matter after undertaking an investigation under Section 174 of the CrPC is something which we do not approve of.”
Student Suicides Rates in India Were More Than Farmer Suicides Report
The report, “Student Suicides-an Epidemic Sweeping India,” was released during the Annual IC3 Conference and Expo 2024 on Wednesday.
The report cited the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data that overall suicide instances have witnessed a 2% increase while student suicides have prominently increased by an alarming 4% in India. The report suggests that these numbers might even be an understatement and the truth could be worse.
The IC3 Institute, a volunteer-driven organisation, supports high schools across the globe with counselling and training materials, helping to build and maintain strong career and college counselling departments for the training of administrators, teachers, and counsellors.
The advancement of student suicides has in reality overshadowed the two whatever population and overall suicide trends. The decrease in the population of individuals aged between 0 and 24 was from 582 million to 581 million in a decade, while student suicides rose sharply from 6654 to 13044,” said the report.
In India, one in seven young people aged between 15 and 24 would be suffering from a poor mental condition, with symptoms of depression and lack of interest. Surprisingly, only 41 percent of them found a need for help when facing any mental-health problems,” UNICEF Report, The State of the World’s Children.
Last year, the IC3 Institute made its debut student suicide report, claiming that about 13,000 students kill themselves in India each year. Such a trend continues. The IC3 Institute, therefore, created a task force for strategic leadership in student mental health.
- Student Suicides in 2022 stood at an insignificant figure of 13044 compared to 13089 in 2021-Minus Yearly Overall Suicide Figures.
- Increased by 4.2% in total suicides, from 164,033 in 2021 to 170,924 in 2022, compared with students and other people.
- During the last 10-20 years, the average yearly increase in total suicides was around 2 percent, while the growth rate of student suicides was about 4 percent-2X that of total suicides.
- Student suicides contribute 7.6 percent of the total, and this is similar to a number of other professions, be they salaried persons, farmers, unemployed persons, or self-employed persons.
- Gender-wise, male student suicides show more numbers than female student suicides. Male student suicides have increased by 50 percent, while female student suicides have increased by 61 percent in the last 10 years. Both average above that, increasing at about 5 percent each year for the past five years.
MALE STUDENT SUICIDES FALLS BUT FEMALE STUDENT SUICIDES INCREASE YEAR ON YEAR
In 2022, male students accounted for 53% of all student suicides. Suicides among male students went down by 6% while that of female students went up by 7% from 2021 to 2022. Over this past decade, suicide in male students went up by 99% while female student suicides increased by 92%. It is also important that accurate data collection, recording, and reporting occurs for transgender students as their situations are absent from this information presently.
While we may not have all of the answers, we know enough to act. Mental well-being of every student must be advocated for and safeguarded. This will take committed and well-resourced efforts, open conversations to break down barriers and taboos, and proactive risk-reduction and protective factor increase interventions in key areas of students’ lives-in the family and school settings.
Ganesh Kohli, the founder of the IC3 Movement, commented on the findings, the report: “It is high time for our learning institutions to realize that mental health needs intervention. The focus of education must now shift toward developing learners’ capabilities for their well-being rather than putting them into unhealthy competition.
We must develop a systematic comprehensive strong career and college counseling system in all institutions and integrate it seamlessly with the learning curriculum. This year, through the Annual IC3 Conference, we hope to catalyze action and institutional transformation on how we approach student development through counseling and career guidance.”
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