For teenagers and young adults, suicide is a primary cause of death among young people in Bharat, and youth suicide is at an all-time high. Suicide is the third largest cause of death in several nations among those aged 15-44 years, and the second leading cause of death among those aged 10-24 years; these figures do not include suicide attempts, which may be up to 20 times more common than completed suicide.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) Accidental Deaths & Suicides in Bharat (ADSI) report, over 13,000 students died in Bharat in 2021 at a rate of more than 35 per day, a 4.5 per cent increase from the 12,526 deaths in 2020, with 864 out of 10,732 suicides being due to “failure in examination.”
The NCRB data is derived from police records. Sociocultural issues call into question the authenticity of these documents. Suicide attempts are criminal under the Indian Penal Code (IPC Section 309), which leads to underreporting. Village Sarpanch certify deaths in rural regions, but all cases are examined by the police. In rural locations, the process of registering a death is very inefficient. Only approximately 25 per cent of deaths are eventually registered, and only around 10 per cent are medically certified. To evade police scrutiny, suicide deaths are commonly described as the result of illness or accident. Families of suicide victims typically do not want postmortems due to concerns about body mutilation, the time-consuming nature of the process, and the associated stigma. Suicides are thus under-reported in statistics drawn from police data.
Have we looked at the causes of mental illnesses, suicidal tendencies, and suicides as responsible parents and society? We have become accustomed to living in a superficial environment in which we express our thoughts and feelings in a superficial and transient manner to suit the occasion. The strength of any parent, society, or nation is found in the well-being of every child, not just physically but also mentally and socially. The appropriate knowledge and strength of mind, memory, intelligence, and ego awareness will undoubtedly provide the best results in our children.
What is the source of the problem, and what are the available solutions?
Our two generations have suffered greatly as a result of an inferior and ineffective education system that has existed for decades. There is no emphasis on the child’s total development, only curriculum-based study, and an overemphasis on marks or grades has resulted in many concerns that we should have considered and addressed a long time ago. “Mind Management” is the most important factor that both parents and educators overlook. It is critical to teach the child from an early age that life is a mix of ups and downs, good and bad, positives and negatives. Children should be taught to find opportunities in every difficulties or task they confront, and to do so with comfort and peace of mind. They should understand that problems and challenges assist them to develop inner potentials that were previously unrecognized. It also helps to build life skills, which are crucial for success. They must comprehend the true and correct definition of success; success is more than just worldly gains; it is a measure of how one handles obstacles and emergency situations. Success is also judged by how much time someone spends to society and nation without any selfish drive.
However, the reality is that our horrendous education system instills dread, dullness, and incorrect perceptions of life’s obstacles and challenges in our youngsters. No one teaches leadership, stress management, anger control, serenity in all things, attachment with detachment, peace and joy in life. Even if some schools attempt to teach life skills, it is all superficial because a deeper and correct knowledge is critical on the mind, intellect, memory, and ego levels that no one knows.
The Modi government’s new education system concentrates on these characteristics in a meaningful way while also taking into account the deeper elements that form life skills. No one can deny that Bharat’s ancient rishis in diverse scriptures and Bhagwan Krishna in Gita provide a deeper and correct understanding of mind, intellect, memory, ego, and self. Westerners exploited this ancient knowledge to expand their knowledge and write a great deal of literature. It is an opportunity for parents and society to take this important policy seriously and ask schools, colleges, and state governments to implement it as soon as possible so that our future generations can be saved from the threat of mental illnesses, suicides, drug abuse, and help their development in all aspects of life.
Copying in exams is another key factor that has gone unnoticed for decades and has corrupted the mental faculties. When a teacher allows students to copy in exams, their mindset receives the message that ethical practices are not required to achieve something in life, their intellectual capacity is not fully used, they live in their comfort zone, and they develop the mindset that shortcut methods are essential but struggle, hard work, and challenges are bad. In the long term, this weakens them mentally, leading to drug misuse, a violent mindset, mental disorders, and suicides.
Children should be taught meditation, Pranayam, Yog, self-defense techniques, creative and innovative capabilities, technical and management skills, family values, ethical practices, and authentic history since childhood. This means growing personal and national character. We are a country where 65 percent of the population is under the age of 35, and if we do not focus on these critical and required reforms through early and meaningful implementation of new education policy, we will face a far greater threat to our youngsters and future generations in terms of mental, social, and behavioral disorders. It is time to shift perceptions and work together to meet the true needs of kids and the nation.
