Suicide rates Alarming

Killer On the Prowl

Yet another student hanged himself to death on thursday. He was a science student in a reputed CBSE school. What compelled him into this decision, was best known to him, but as the news spread, most people just shrugged the matter aside.  Some attibuted the matter to the ever mounting pressure on students from their parents side, some blamed the young gene-rations attitude towards life and yet another group managed to press in the role of info and communication tools at hand.
In the recent past a student killed himself, when his parents refused to give in to his demand of a motorbike. They wanted their son to grow up before he could be allowed to handle a 5gear bike. In another incident a school teacher committed suicide, because her son would not speak to her. He had been refused a motor bike on his birthday, and had stopped talking to his mother for the last six months or so, preceding the incident.
Communication Gap?
Busy parents and nuclear families have brought about a sea change around the youngsters. Whatever remains of a family is securely locked up separately in his/her room. Apart from adrenalin rushes, teens are also susceptible to emotional breakdowns. He/she has no one to speak to. He tries to find answers on the net, facebook or people of his own age. Failing which he succumbs.
Too much flattery
Too much flattery can be another reason. Parents who dont have enough time for their kids, try to appease them by expensive gifts when they are young. They fulfull all their wishes at a younger age. The child does not learn to hear ‘no’. The first ‘NO’ is thrown at him when he is in the teens. It baffles him and his ego is hurt. This can be another reason of their hostility.

Failing to cope up

President APEC, Shri Sanjay Rungta points out that failing to cope up to the expectations can be another reason, why students try to escape. Students from all runs of the society come into the college campus, miles away from their home and known territory. They come across many new things and try to imitate. The medium of instruction also puts additional stress. Time and again they are reminded by their parents and relatives of the pain they are taking to send him to a good school or college. All this, put together is too much for the student to cope up with. He may be forced to give up, if he doesnot find the right answers.

Dont give up

Dr LN Sheshadri, convener SQAC addressed the issue in a series of stories. He narrated the story of a chinese kickboxer who had lost his arm in an accident just before his biggest title fight. He approached his master and said, ‘I have lost my confidence but have faith in you.’ The master asked him to prepare in a different manner. He won the bout and returned elated to his master. The master simply said, ‘The move I had advised, needed the opponent to grab you by your right hand. But as you don’t have one, he was quizzed and you won.’
Further, citing the movie ‘Lagaan’ he said, “The game and its rules belonged to the English men. Amir and his men learnt the rules and gave a tough fight, winning the game. We had never seen formula one racing in our country, but Kartikeyan managed to win the race. Fable of the story is, there always is a way. Find the right person to tell you what to do.
‘An engineer from IIT and an MBA from IIM fell in love and ultimately tied the knot. But after three months they fall apart and seek divorce. No body taught them to live together’, he observed.

Teen Suicide Figures Alarming

It is alarming to note that highest suicide rate in the world has been reported among young women in South India by a new study. The average suicide rate for young women aged between 15 to 19 living around Vellore in Tamil Nadu was 148 per 100,000. This compares to just 2.1 suicides per 100,000 in the same group in the UK. The global suicide rate stands at 14.5 deaths per 100,000, with suicide the fourth leading cause of death in the 15 to 19 age group. However, in the Tamil Nadu study, suicide was the number one cause of death among these adolescents.
"I was surprised to find the rates were so staggeringly high," says paediatrician Anuradha Bose, who led the study at the Christian Medical College in Vellore.
Bose's work, published in The Lancet, follows is the second study to reveal more women killing themselves than men. The first was in China. But it also tallies with unpublished work the WHO is currently carrying out in India, China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.  Suicides accounted for between 50 and 75 per cent of all deaths in adolescent girls and about a quarter of all deaths in boys aged 10 to 19. Hanging was the most common, followed by poisoning.