Failing in an exam pushes students into distress. It becomes difficult for them to face the society. They experience sense of insult, guilt and shame because of which they end up committing suicide. But here is a different case. A girl from Kota of Rajasthan has committed suicide even after clearing the prestigious IIT- JEE exam. The reason being she did not want to pursue engineering but BSc. However, since she had scored 144 marks which is 44 marks ahead of cut – off of 100 marks there was no way to escape from joining engineering college. This must have caused stress in her mind. What a sad situation!? Alas! Getting success also pushes someone into death!
Kota is a major hub for preparing for competitive exams in the country. More than 1.5 lakh students enrol for coaching every year. Around 35 thousand students from different coaching institutes here have cleared IIT – JEE exam this year which is an evidence for mad rush.
According to the statistics, in the last five years, nearly 56 students have committed suicide in Kota. It is the fifth suicide in this year by a student. Losing the lives of children at a tender age is not only a loss for the family but also for the country. After all, why students are committing suicide?
Some of the experts opine that fear of failure and burden of expectation from family causes immense stress in the minds of the students for which they find a solution in the form of suicide. The age of the children will be such that they will be in a confused state regarding the career options, interesting subject/ stream. Even if they are clear about their interesting field, they will not be in a position to convince their parents who would be aspiring their child to become an engineer or a doctor. I do agree that the professional courses do provide an excellent job opportunity with handsome salary. But it doesn’t mean that other streams are not good. People are searching of ‘scope’ in different fields which is a very wrong trend. One should choose his/her interesting field and create a niche for oneself. The ‘scope’ will be created on its own when you perform well. When a tea seller can become Prime Minister of this country, why are we so much bothered about scope!?
Parents should understand that they are the facilitators in the child’s development and not the dictators. They should give sufficient inputs and stimuli for the child to explore its capabilities and interest so that it chooses its field. India is a country filled with engineers. But when they are asked about why they became engineers, only few people will say that they were passionate about engineering. Majority of the people would say family pressure or some other reason. That is why the mental stress in our country is increasing day by day.
Earlier, there were limited job opportunities. Now the situation has changed. Person belonging to any field can have a dignified life if they are passionate about their work, love the job they are doing and happily doing whatever they are doing. Parents or family or society should let the individuals to blossom on their own and decide their destiny by themselves.
Akshara Damle
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
