In 2014, India witnessed 2403 exam-related suicides. Maharashtra topped with 359 suicides. Tamil Nadu came second with 247 cases. (Representational Image)
There's gloom in Chennai's Virugambakkam neighbourhood. A 15-year-old girl, upset after her father allegedly scolded her for skipping tuition classes, hanged herself on Wednesday. Her mother, seeing her child's body, killed herself too.
15-year-old Rajeshwari was taking her board exams. The police have registered a case of suspicious death.
A neighbor, Salman Harid, said, "Parents have chided her for not going for tuition, that she's not studying well. She was under stress."
The private school the young girl studied at refused to speak, saying it was a family issue that triggered the tragedy.
In 2014, India witnessed 2403 exam-related suicides. Maharashtra topped with 359 suicides. Tamil Nadu came second with 247 cases.
Experts say students come under immense pressure from parents to score very high marks. Schools too have been accused of putting pressure to get top ranks. In the process, children's interests and talent becomes a casualty.
Dr Mohan Raj, Director and Consultant Psychiatrist, Tharu Clinic, says "See what's your child is good at and encourage your child to go for it. Second thing is accept your children the way they are, unconditional acceptance rather than saying we'll accept you only if they are academically successful."
While activists are demanding a thorough overhaul of the grading and ranking systems, Tamil Nadu, experts say has managed to bring down exam-related suicides drastically from 420 in 2004 to 247 in 2014.
Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, Consultant Psychiatrist and a Consultant with the World Health Organisation's Suicide Prevention Programme, says, "We made the government introduce the supplementary examination and this ensured those who fail or scored low marks wouldn't have to waste a year. It changed the way people looked at failure or low marks".