Suicide among young women

Exam time is stressful period for all involved. But adolescents and teenagers, especially girls are taking to end their lives in the face of failure. Why is it so hard to get past academic failures?

Crime news is hardly a thing one likes to read in the morning. But the suicide of two young girls isn’t something you can miss. The two girls aged 17 and 19 killed themselves some weeks back due to exam fears. Though the two deaths are unrelated, the cause is scarily common; especially at this time of the year.

Over the last few years Bangalore has gained a dubious reputation of being the suicide capital of the country! One of the media reports quoting statistics available with the city’s crime bureau says that over 7840 cases of suicides were recorded in Bangalore between 2004 and 2008. That is about five suicides a day! The average age group was 15 to 35. While there are conflicting reports on the ratio of men and women in these statistics; an earlier NIMHANS report says that more women than men resort to suicides. And that the biggest factor is exam fear or fear of failure in exams.

Though increasing suicides are a deeply disturbing trend irrespective of gender; I would like to find answers to why more young women fear failure than men of the same age group?

What are the options a young girl has if she fails an exam? Let’s take the example of Divya, a 16 year old who failed her ninth standard exams. Her parents, both uneducated and daily wage workers, couldn’t support her further and decided she’ll go to work as a nanny in the neighbouring apartment complex. While Divya’s older brother, Karthik, in the same predicament, managed to write the exams twice before he finally cleared the papers in tenth standard.

The fear of failure isn’t restricted to lower income groups alone. In another case, Priyanjana, from a well to do family, had ambitions of doing an MBA from one of the IIMs; but failed to gain entrance. Her parents, instead of encouraging her to try again decided to marry her off. Both examples illustrate that there are very few options to get over the academic failures for a young girl. That is not to say young men have it any easier. Children are under pressure all through the schooling years to perform and failures are simply not acceptable, not even in surprise class tests!

There is definitely more awareness among parents today, about how fragile adolescent minds are and that they need to be careful. Then there are helplines such as SAHAI.  But there is a larger issue here that needs to be addressed. What would you do to tackle this problem? This city has seen many changes in the past decade but is ‘suicide capital’ an acceptable label?   ⊕

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Mumbai ‘leader mothers’ creating milestones in early education programme

Pratham's Mothers Groups for Nipun Maharashtra programme involves mothers to enable children to achieve functional literacy and numeracy.

One of the most important goals under NEP 2020  is to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary schools by the year 2025. The Ministry of Education started the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat in July 2021. The goal is to enable children to attain basic foundational skills by the time they reach Class III. The Ministry aims to achieve this by 2026-27. Read more: Students detained in spare classroom: Who pays when school fees become unaffordable? Pratham's Leader Mother for NIPUN Maharashtra programme Pratham, an NGO established in 1995, has been working…

Similar Story

“Blood. Sweat. Tears. Repeat”: What NEET aspirants are in for as NTA bungles

The future of 24 lakh students is at stake, and teachers predict a tough next year too. Experts call for urgent reforms in the NEET exam.

What does the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) mean to the 23.8 lakh students aspiring to become doctors? "Blood, sweat, tears, repeat" — this is how a second year MBBS student described her years of preparation for the NEET, while studying in classes 11th and 12th. At least a year before that is consumed by anxiety, decision-making, determination and planning for the preparation. And, all this does not include the financial aspect, which amounts to lakhs and sometimes even crores.   Shalmali (name changed) is a second-year MBBS student in the Government Medical College in Dhule. She recounts the long…