Students are stressed for a host of reasons these days. If inadequate academic credentials bother them one day, it is lack of quality of education, lack of employable skills, rising fees poor assessments, delayed results and lack of employment opportunities on many others. If the student is stressed and lapses into depression on these very avoidable causes, and reacts in his own way as he understands or misunderstands the outside world, whose fault would it be? Stress happens when one is overloaded and struggling to cope with demands. Anything that poses a real or perceived challenge or threat to a person’s well-being can cause stress. How must the State then react? How does the Society then react?
Stress can also be a motivator. It can be essential to survival. The “fight-or-flight” mechanism can tell us when and how to respond to danger. However, if this mechanism is triggered too easily, or when there are too many stressors at one time, it can undermine a person’s mental and physical health and become harmful.
It is extremely unfortunate that twenty-two students committed suicide after a software glitch led to mismatch between roll numbers and marks recently in Telangana. The goof-up in marks led to a spate of suicides by students since the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) announced the results on April 18. Yes, they felt enough despair to want to die, but why did they feel that? A person’s suicide often takes the people it leaves behind by surprise, accentuating survivor’s guilt for failing to see it coming. Pray, who would have seen this coming?
Intentional infliction of emotional distress generally involves some kind of conduct that is so terrible that it causes severe emotional trauma to the victim. The students who have been the victims of this trauma cannot come back to lay claim to compensation. The parents or survivors may be compensated for some paltry sums for the emotional distress they underwent. Does it absolve the society of the indifference? Does it absolve the government of its role? Not all offensive conduct may qualify as intentional infliction of emotional distress, However, people in society must necessarily deal with a certain level of ineptitude or offensive conduct. When the conduct rises to a truly reprehensible level, though, what must one do?
Following the reported suicides and protests by the parents, the Telangana government reviewed and ordered the concerned authorities to do a free-of-cost re-evaluation of students’ papers. Is this poetic justice or hitting below the belt? Was revaluation not allowed under the law? If yes, why was it not done earlier? Why do governments react in such a lackadaisical way? Why cannot the Supreme Court convert this to a PIL and pass strictures against the functioning of the government? We have hundreds of children who have not even seen the light of the day dying, for lack of oxygen in the hospitals in the State of UP or several farmers dying wilfully every single day all over the country for lack of means to stay afloat and we as people and as a nation do not even mourn their demise. What level of insensitivity do we practice?
Suicide may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But then what systems have we created to highlight the temporariness of the problems? Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it, since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live. In 2016 the number of suicides in India had increased to 230,314 in both the age groups of 15–29 years and 15–39 years. 17% of a million suicides the world over each year, is in our country. More chilling is the fact that a majority of these are in the Southern States and men dying twice as large as women.
Every one of us has swings in our mood or has highs and lows in our emotional feelings. If these swings are within a certain normal range, we remain self-governed and functional. But when they become extreme, they can lead us into the poles of mania and depression. In some cases, if the manias become extremely high, depressions can become extremely low. One may even experience fantasies and nightmares or extreme degrees of pride and shame. When we are up, manic and elated, our brain is flooded by increased release of dopamine, and various endorphins. When we are depressed, the reverse occurs and cortisol and other neurotransmitters can surge. So much for what happens. The larger question is, if the mania or depression is induced, such as that happened in Telangana, then we surely have failed as a society.
Students too must keep it in perspective since examinations and results are not everything and must believe they can be successful in life in spite of failures. Discipline in life is its organiser. Some good habits like early to rise and early to bed have done no wrong to anyone. Do not set ridiculous goals. Be off on stimulants like caffeine or drugs for they can sap the energy in the long run and induce depression. Seeking support from friends and family can certainly be the elixir of life.
There is a lesson for parents as well. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed children to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would be better off without me” to make rational sense. They shouldn’t be blamed for falling prey to such distorted thoughts any more than a heart patient should be blamed for experiencing chest pain: Look for the distress signals. Depression is almost always treatable. Confronting the children directly than going roundabout must be explored. Expecting the problem to go away on its own is no way of dealing with it. Psychotic disorders are also treatable. Impulsive disorders induced by drugs or alcohol is a greater concern but again curable. One needs to look for the small visible signs that can lead to disasters. The guilt in a student of having made a mistake can lead to shame. They could flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defence I believe, is love, advice and education.