https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187043/
3 idiots an indian "comedy" treats of this.
In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
21–30 of 184 posts
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#22The root problem is that there are too few institutes offering quality education, and given the limited seats, the competition is sky high. Without going to Kota, there is almost zero chance a student from a small town or village is going to make it to any of those institutions. The quality of education in a reputed City school and the best small town school is vastly different. I consider myself lucky that my district happened to have a good school, that students even from neighbouring districts attended (we are talking about travelling 30 kms to school). But not everyone has access to one and hence Kota is their only alternative.
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#23> From the start of 2014 to November 2017, 45 Kota students committed suicide.
Every suicide is a tragedy, but what's the base rate? I have no idea if 45 is a lot or a little without knowing how many people were Kota students during this timeframe and what the overall youth suicide rate in India is. For all the reader knows, the suicide rate is lower in this population. Why doesn't the media report the basic information that would make their case? It's bad, innumerate reporting.
I bring this up because the way this is reported is similar to the Foxconn suicide "scandal" where it turned out the suicide rate among Foxconn employees was lower than the national average. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/media-gets-its-facts-wrong-wor...)
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#24I am from Kota - the city mentioned in this article as the epicenter of this crisis. India's annual suicide rate is 10.5 per 100,000 people, while the suicide rate for the world as a whole is 11.6 per 100,000 [1]. Kota has seen an extremely large influx of young students over the last decade. Roughly 200,000 [2] students come to live in this city to study for college entrance exam. Now, while the high-pressure exams…
India's population has boomed in 50 years but has the number of available places at prestigious institutions boomed with it?
Yes! Exponentially in last 10 years. When I took the exam a rank of 2.5 k was almost equal to not getting a rank. But now a rank of 10k has better opportunities!
Colleges mushroomed from 6 to 23!
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#25Notice how large percentage of the article was about a stupid fan, whose main feature is falling off the ceiling, rather than about the actual topic you clicked on the article for.
I did a quick count: 6 paragraphs about 20 are directly devoted to his Smart Fan. 10 paragraphs out of 20 refer to ceiling fans. Also, an actual quote from the article:
"Engineer Sharad Ashani is fond of demoing his anti-suicide ceiling fan by attempting to hang himself on Indian TV."
You'd think/hope somebody making this kind of product would at least be aware of the Young Werther Effect.
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#26Notice how large percentage of the article was about a stupid fan, whose main feature is falling off the ceiling, rather than about the actual topic you clicked on the article for.
The most important suicide prevention measure is to reduce access to means and methods.
If people in India are hanging themselves from ceiling fans a safer fan would be an important suicide prevention measure.
Why is it "stupid"?
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#27These things have always existed in India. Largely happens because most people come from a strata of society where failure is not an option. Should you fail, you go back to the same crappy conditions all life. Having said that, Indians solicit social approval as a report card that evaluates their life. And due to this people face irrational pressures from total strangers who have no stake in their lives. I remember s…
> Having said that, Indians solicit social approval as a report card that evaluates their life. Ask any psychologist and they will confirm that 'soliciting social approval as a report card to evaluate their life' is basically a human condition affection close to 100% of the species. The only thing 'Indian' about it is that maybe only Indians think that its an 'Indian' thing.
> The only thing 'Indian' about it is that maybe only Indians think that its an 'Indian' thing.
I am an Indian and I disagree with this. A large fraction (yes it is changing) of Indian society cares a lot about what relatives and neighbors would think about our lifestyle. There are so many taboos and restrictions inflicted upon family members simply because pressure from relatives and neighbors. My own family keeps quoting things like "what would relatives say" about my life choices. Now I live in a western society and I don't have to worry about it.
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#28I am from Kota - the city mentioned in this article as the epicenter of this crisis. India's annual suicide rate is 10.5 per 100,000 people, while the suicide rate for the world as a whole is 11.6 per 100,000 [1]. Kota has seen an extremely large influx of young students over the last decade. Roughly 200,000 [2] students come to live in this city to study for college entrance exam. Now, while the high-pressure exams…
> India's annual suicide rate is 10.5 per 100,000 people, while the suicide rate for the world as a whole is 11.6 per 100,000
You need a little bit of caution here. It's very difficult to compare rates of death with other countries because there are different definitions for suicide, and different levels of recording and reporting.
In particular, there are problems in some areas of India of under recording deaths.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090536X1...
> In the last two decades, the suicide rate has increased from 7.9 to 10.3 per 100,000,8 with very high rates in some southern regions.9 In a study published in The Lancet in June 2012, the estimated number of suicides in India in 2010 was about 187,000.10 According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB); state of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka have registered a consistently higher number of suicidal deaths during the last few years and together accounted for 56.2% of the total suicides reported in the country. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state (16.5% share of the population) has reported a comparatively lower percentage of suicidal deaths, accounting for only 3.6% of the total suicides reported in this country, but this researcher feels that this is due to the underestimation of suicide cases in this area. There is a general agreement that previous statistics on the incidence of suicide in the Lucknow region were grossly inadequate and that their comparison based on the figures available is inaccurate and misleading. This causes the suicide problem to be underestimated and, thus, neglected by the government, although this problem seems to be universal. In addition, the features of deaths due to suicide are changing constantly, revealing complex social and cultural developments.11 Prichard and Amanullah (2007)12 suggested that, to avoid the under-reporting of suicides, both formal suicide verdicts and other violent deaths should be considered together because the other violent deaths may include hidden suicides.
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#29"Large group of young students in India, pursuing a future under impossible circumstances, collapsing under the immense pressure and leading some of them to commit suicide." Well, that's terrible. Surely we should discuss why they even get to this point, and how this could be prevented? "Most suicides happen by hanging from ceiling fans, so let's make anti-suicide ceiling fans." Nailed it.
Obviously you need more than safer fans, but don't knock it. Reducing access to means and methods is the most important thing you can do for suicide prevention.
People talk about method substitution, but that doesn't always happen.
Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am from Kota too and your argument is just nit-picking. Of course, when you're blaming high-pressure exams, you're also blaming every factor related to it. Your analysis of suicide rates fails to consider that these are very young students barely in the age group of 15-19 and the cause is singular (high-pressure parenting). But suicide rate is just one symptom that this industry engenders. The immense pressure thes…
> I was very lucky to escape this trap. I considered myself to be very dumb and knew that there's absolutely no chance I was going to make it. so what did you do instead? and can that be replicated by 100,000 other young people?
> so what did you do instead? and can that be replicated by 100,000 other young people?
Theoretically, it can be replicated. The tools that I have used to learn everything are accessible to most of the people I have met. But, whatever may be the reasons, it just doesn't happen.