Mumbai:
All's not well for Maharashtra's students. As
3 Idiots breaks box office records, student suicides in the state are touching a high.
Fifteen student have committed suicides in the first 12 days of the month. And the supposed cause for all 15 has been exam failure.
Also, there have been five deaths in Nagpur alone, prompting the Nagpur University to launch an urgent campaign to counsel students.
"Education is a lifelong process. A single failure will not impact it," says Dr Gaurishankar Parashar, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Nagpur University.
It's an advise that echoes that of actors like Amir Khan who, after
3 Idiots, has come in for criticism for its depiction of student suicides.
"Counselling is a must for children. A debate should be started on how students are pressurised, parents must talk to their children," the actor says.
And other Bollywood actors also feel the same way.
"We also studied, we also got low marks, we were also scared of our parents, but parents shouldn't scare kids they should make them understand," says actor Salman Khan.
Now the Maharashtra government is hoping that parents and children across the state will not just listen, but follow such advice.