Suicides in Kota: Alarm Bells!

Abstract

I read, with great dismay, a recent newspaper article mentioning that a student preparing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) had committed suicide in Kota, Rajasthan which was the eighth suicide of the year. I was horrified! I wondered what the poor fellow must have gone through before taking such a step and what must be the state of his parents now?
Although medicine is a very fulfilling and noble profession, it has its fair share of stress during training. Long working hours, scores of patients to look after, sleep deprivation, and no proper meal times –the list goes on! However, these things do not happen when a child prepares for the entrance examination. At that time, the stress is of a different type i.e., whether or not the child will clear the examination and whether all the hard work, time, and money gone into coaching for the same would be wasted! Children need to be loved and cared for in these difficult times and counseled regarding failure. Maybe not clearing that particular examination might steer them towards another better profession in life! The burden of parental expectations and the inability to tackle failure drives children far away from home, staying in coaching centres to take such drastic steps!
Let’s think about this carefully and try to make things better, starting at our own homes! Let us not burden our children with the weight of our expectations and teach them to work very hard yet be able to tackle failure!! Remember- “change begins at home!”