Students' suicide: School to blame?

Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal talks about pressure on school kids these days, and how true that is. Pressure on kids is getting so bad that now it's very serious.

Take the case of two little children; they came late to school, the school sent them away; they were so terrified about getting hell from their parents that they jumped into a well and died.

The two young girls committed suicide on Monday. Jayalakshmi was six and her friend and neighbour Divya, seven. Both studied in a government school in Tiruvannamalai District.

On Monday morning, they reached school an hour late. The teachers did not let them attend classes. Jayalakshmi's 14-year-old sister Vendamani, who also reached with them, was turned away.

"We reached school at 10:30 am. So the headmaster asked us go home and return with our parents the next day," said Vendamani.

Scared and confused, the girls first went to their aunt's place.

On their way home, fear got the better of them and they jumped into a well. Vendamani, who did not know about their plan, jumped right after them, trying to save them. But she couldn't.

"We sent them to school at the same time. But they were still beaten up at school. That is why the girls did this," said Kumuda, Jayalakshmi's mother.

The headmaster of the school has been suspended. Investigators, however, do not believe the school had threatened the girls. They say Divya and Jayalakshmi were perhaps as scared of the teachers as of the parents, and took this extreme step because they were too young to process the fear.