In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

India is an interesting place at the moment and the pressure to succeed is immense (often to the detriment of personal wellbeing). So much so that cheating schemes are commonly devised by large groups of people, and the ingenuity involved is often quite remarkable and creative.<p>I&#x27;ve personally hired a number of people in my Delhi office from the local IIT, and these are a few things I&#x27;ve noticed amongst new grads: parrot fashion learning is rife across the board. Despite being smart, they often struggle to think on their feet. It&#x27;s as if they want a fully defined a problem domain, AND want to solve problems only within that defined domain, much like an exam! Anything outside of their comfort zone is met with a rather damp response equating to &quot;we haven&#x27;t covered that in class yet&quot;. In business (and even development), that attitude is not a good one to have.<p>What&#x27;s funny, however, is that if you walk past an Indian shanty town, you will find examples of (often illegal) innovation at every corner, from stolen electricty to rigged water meters etc - usually concocted by people with little education. The innovative mindset exists in the heart of Indian society, but the education system somehow seems to restrict it by making people believe that the path to success is narrow and the same for everyone. Hence the competition.<p>I feel the education system needs to encourage free thinking more than rote learning. I believe it would allow students to enjoy their subjects, rather than just looking at them as a stepping stone to success. Perhaps if students approached their studies with a sense of wonder and excitement, rather than competetive aggression, their mental state would be significantly better during their years of education.

This is a pretty inane article for placing too much emphasis on a stupid gimmick like anti-suicide ceiling fans, when the underlying issue is a serious mental health issue of extraordinarily stressed students.<p>I&#x27;m Indian and I remember the summer of my 12th grade exams back in 2007 just like yesterday because of some latent awareness that something very important is happening here. I sat in so many exams that summer. First was the CBSE boards aka AISSCE (which was the all-important failsafe), then AIEEE (for admission to the NITs), then BITSAT (for admission to BITS), and finally the IITJEE (for admission to the IITs). All these exams are fairly long, and you compete at the national level.<p>Already back then the competition was fierce with kids enrolling in tuition centers half a decade even before their first attempt at any of these exams (it was quite common for people to try a few times). I could write a very long essay about the depth of preparation that goes into attempting these exams. It is quite natural that the competitive pressures has worsened over the years with students attempting to out-prepare one another by even bigger margins.<p>In a country so huge, of course not all students attempt this route, but landing a seat in the small list of prestigious institutions is the only ticket to a good career in India for the most part. This is not unlike American students who take AP level courses, demonstrate exceptional talent in sports or music, or volunteer their time in different ways to stand out in the application process at one of the big name schools. So in that sense, this is describing a very relatable struggle among students across nations, though the means are substantially different.

I am from Kota - the city mentioned in this article as the epicenter of this crisis. India&#x27;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 are a problem and there are a complex set of contributing factors that make the exams &quot;high pressure&quot; - social norms, lottery-ticket-out-of-middle-class-mindset, lack of other options, population, demographics (large number of young people) etc. - but the article is trying to make a link between the high pressure exam and suicides, that seems a bit problematic to me. This exam has existed for more than 50 years, and has always been very hard and high pressure.<p>This article states that &quot;from the start of 2014 to November 2017, 45 Kota students committed suicide&quot;. Please make up your mind about the facts, but it seems like lazy journalism and a stretch to make the connection between the exam and suicides without accounting for deviations from per capita rates.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Suicide_in_India" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Suicide_in_India</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;How-many-students-are-in-Kota" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;How-many-students-are-in-Kota</a>

&quot;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.&quot;<p>Well, that&#x27;s terrible. Surely we should discuss why they even get to this point, and how this could be prevented?<p>&quot;Most suicides happen by hanging from ceiling fans, so let&#x27;s make anti-suicide ceiling fans.&quot;<p>Nailed it.

I am from India, and I have experienced the kind of pressure that this article is talking about. Personally, I feel that the root cause of this kind of pressure placed on teenagers is the abject fear of failure that is prevalent in India, especially in the middle class population. If one cannot crack these exams with flying colors, then society(most part of it at least) writes them off as losers who are doomed to a low paying job with no prospects of success in life, financial and personal.<p>A lot of people equate academic brilliance with intelligence and build up on that logic that it&#x27;ll lead to financial prosperity, which in turn will lead to a good image in society and hence happiness. Don&#x27;t have good marks, you are worthless. Never bother if you are a great athlete, singer, artist or any of the other vocations.<p>Even within academics, if you can&#x27;t make it into one of the areas which pay a lot, like CS&#x2F;EE&#x2F;Medical science etc, then society views you with pity about your wasted talent. Doesn&#x27;t matter how skilled of a Civil&#x2F;Mechanical engineer or architect you are.<p>I feel lucky to have been exposed to the western system to get out of such a though process and hope that India can pick up some good things from the west in the field of education.

These 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.<p>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 suicide cases were common even during lay offs.<p>Thank fully now the society is gradually gaining numbers in non-conformists. This is now considered cool. I remember as a teenager I was largely treated as a rebel outcast, if didn&#x27;t care for social approval.<p>People need to understand they can do what they want, how they want, and on their terms. Social approval means nothing, especially if people granting the approval have no real stake in your life.

Extreme economic incentives perpetuate odd socio-economic behaviour. Look at the Japanese greying population renting everything from fake family to a complete fake wedding with the whole 9 yards[1](Yes Virginia there is a Netflix documentary on it as well[2]).<p>But enough about Japan. The dangers to India are very real.<p>- 1 million people entering the workforce every month due to demographics.<p>- 50% population engaged in agriculture providing 14% of the GDP.<p>- Difficult labor laws, swamped Judicial system makes for only technology intensive industries that employ fewer people.<p>It is a unique experiment in the history of Democracies where ~600 Million people need to be lifted out of poverty and into sustainable jobs. This has not been done before.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;family&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2017&#x2F;11&#x2F;paying-for-fake-friends-and-family&#x2F;545060&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;family&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2017&#x2F;11&#x2F;paying-fo...</a> [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;video&#x2F;detail&#x2F;B06Y1JVLD4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;video&#x2F;detail&#x2F;B06Y1JVLD4</a>

&gt;To prepare, students from across India travel to the historic northern city of Kota, spending months or even years away from their family and home. Whether the children of manual labourers or business tycoons, all have traveled to Kota for one reason: academic glory<p>Highly misleading. Only a small percentage of people actually go to Kota for preparation, and the number of students in Kota coming from poorer sections of society is exetremely low. The coaching institutes are not cheap, sometimes costing almost as much as college tuition.<p>This paragraph paints it as some kind of pilgrimage that every student goes through.

An anecdote and a poll. I grew up in India in middle class family where education was considered important. A recurring nightmare (autual dream I see during sleep) I see even in my adulthood is about me about to take an exam and not being prepared for it. I do not see this nightmare often but I still remember it since the amount of panic I feel when I see it. I discussed with my wife and she also have these nightmare of similar nature. I wanted to check whether anyone out here see this and whether it is more prevalent in culture like Indian culture or is it a universal phenomenon?

Notice 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 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.

The issue is that kids aren&#x27;t taught to handle pressure, that is the main problem because parents pamper kids until they go to college!<p>as a child, you are not allowed to have your own decisions, like ever. You eat what your parents tell you to eat, you take admission to undergrad&#x2F;postgrad about what your parents tell. You study hard as they told you, they even decide when and to whom you lose virginity! (arranged marriage)<p>No wonder if there is a little pressure then kids can&#x27;t handle it. This is not a governmental issue, this is societal one. and the government can&#x27;t do shit, pardon my language.<p>Now what will happen? The govt will panick and reduce the quality of exams, the exams which are already pathetic in quality, the proof for which can be found by counting the number of Indian instituties in top 100 in the world, ONE!!

I appreciate this for the article points out an alarming issue. But there has been slight mis-representation. It slightly portrays that Indian engineering education landscape starts and ends in IITs only. No, there are the NITs, BITSes, IIITs, IISc and others which have equal facilities as IITs and are even doing better than some IITs.

Reminds me of the movie 3 idiots (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt1187043&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt1187043&#x2F;</a>). I guess the story is still valid nowdays. Great inspirational movie btw...

The ridiculous thing is that exams are irrational: they don&#x27;t measure knowledge and ability, i.e. they don&#x27;t measure what they purport to measure. It makes the societal scale suffering and death all the more meaningless and disturbing.

Just wondering how this might be tied to the statistic[1] which ranks top countries (hours&#x2F;week) where parents help their kids with their homework. India ranks as the top country. This might set bad habits to the students with learning, as they come more dependant to get help from their parents (and other peers) and it might also hamper their problem solving skills.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16882430" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16882430</a>

One thing for Westerners to be aware of: In India, your exam scores (SAT-type thingys) are public, <i>very</i> public. They are usually published in a special edition of the local newspaper, in descending order. Meaning that the best kid comes first in a very public way. Couple this with the familial honor system&#x2F;arranged marriages and I think you&#x27;ll understand why pressure can be so intense. Even your love-life can be radically changed by these tests.

There is a Bollywood movie that excels on this subject and delves deeper into the culture that creates an environment favorable to such outcomes.<p>Name = &quot;3 Idiots&quot;

Having gone through the system, my two cents:<p>The exploding population of India has put a huge pressure on the public infrastructure. Any credible university&#x2F;college (because of numerous swindling orgs) which usually means govt. run has a flood of candidates, the IITs being the archetypal example. Add this to the social pressure put by the definition of success according to the culture and you&#x27;ve got yourself in an Indian pressure cooker[1] which shapes you to perfectly fit the mold of the educational system- effectively quenching creativity.<p>I wouldn&#x27;t generalize though. The smart still are able to wiggle through and come out the other end without selling their soul. But the opportunity cost for the others who would have excelled given better instruction and infrastructure is unfathomable.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pressure_cooking" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pressure_cooking</a>

&gt; From the start of 2014 to November 2017, 45 Kota students committed suicide.<p>Every suicide is a tragedy, but what&#x27;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&#x27;t the media report the basic information that would make their case? It&#x27;s bad, innumerate reporting.<p>I bring this up because the way this is reported is similar to the Foxconn suicide &quot;scandal&quot; where it turned out the suicide rate among Foxconn employees was <i>lower</i> than the national average. (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zdnet.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;media-gets-its-facts-wrong-working-at-foxconn-significantly-cuts-suicide-risk&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zdnet.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;media-gets-its-facts-wrong-wor...</a>)

The problem is not with the exams. When millions try to get past the bottleneck with width of 10K, the competition will obviously be intense. And a developing country like India cannot afford more institutes like IITs, even those that currently exist(the newer ones) need a lot of improvement, especially funding for research.<p>IMHO, the problem lies with the parents who push&#x2F;force their children into a race that they don&#x27;t want to be a part of. Then it doesn&#x27;t matter if they excel or not, they feel lost and hopeless. The number of classmates I had during engg who had no interest in engg&#x2F;CS was huge.<p>Solving this problem would solve a lot of issues. It&#x27;s getting solved as people are getting disillusioned from Engg == Money. The number of students applying to engg is gradually decreasing every year (80K less this year).

Surprised Korea wasnt mentioned, I believe they have the highest suical rates if Im not mistaken. The kids starting from elementary start school at 7am and comes back home around midnight. Which is really gross and atrocious to hear, almost as bad as labor camps if you ask me.

My parents died when I was 7. I starved for food when I was a kid. My elder siblings sacrificed everything to buy me books. I wore tattered clothes all my childhood. Today, at age 38, I&#x27;m worth many millions of dollars and living in Silicon Valley. Why? For three years, between ages 15-18, I worked my arse off, studying under candle lights and streetlights (no electricity at home) and got into IIT.<p>I agree that something needs to be done.<p>A few of my relatives went into depression and have serious mental health issues due to the stress of preparing for IIT JEE. Having seen both sides of the story, I don&#x27;t have a solution.<p>A good job can be life changing, while the human toll it takes along the way cannot justify the means...

India is a country with a huge split. There is a lot of rich people and and a lot of poor people. This is the only chance a lot of these kids have to get out of their situation. We complain about america&#x27;s social safety net well India&#x27;s is a lot worse. It doesn&#x27;t really even exist. If some of these kids can&#x27;t get out they lose hope. I think the dream is get into IIT, get into MNC or US college and get out.<p>Yeah it puts a huge amount of pressure on kids because it might not be just them, but their families too. They are making huge sacrifices too for their kid to succeed.

All striving to conform, what a waste of minds. Poor people, they should rebel.

The situation is nothing new. I am from Bangalore and often hear a well known anecdote about Mysore, a large historically rich city about 100 km from Bangalore. I hear it from people of my parents&#x27; generation, so it must be the 60s. Its invariably said in a humorous tone.<p>The 10th year of school is a very important stage, transitioning to university, and the exam has always been stress inducing. On the day of the result, there were policemen guarding a lake called kukkarahalli kere in order to stop students who failed from committing suicide.

The important thing what people miss outside india is that india forces people to marry by 28 or so. This mean the thought responsibiliy is so huge. This is not the case in western society. It is much more evolved. An individual has a free choice to choose work less and enjoy and not have a family. This is sadly not the case in india.

When more than 50% of seats are reserved under quotas, what is there left to compete, unless you are the brightest of the bright. It is irrational to put efforts to study for exams for both open category candidates and those under reservation categories.

How is death less high pressure that an exam so as to seem more enticing an option?

This happens in the USA too, except at college level. A nearby shooting range has had a few suicides by Asian students at the end of the spring semester.

When I learned that the military suicide rate is no higher than the suicide rate in the civilian world, my criteria for believing that any one thing is so deleterious to mental health that it actually drives people to suicide went up tremendously.<p>Our minds are remarkably robust and most will handle immense pressure. Some minds just aren&#x27;t. Sure, they&#x27;ll crack under pressure. But that pressure can come from literally anywhere, including existential angst that comes from nowhere but the person&#x27;s own mind.<p>Hence why suicide rates tend to remain constant no matter the situation.

from what i read and what i saw in test cheating,is it common in india culture? our local high school is investigating test cheating,turns out all of them(12) are from indian,which puzzled me, other culture treats test cheating something extremely bad,but the india students probably think it is not a big deal?

I quit reading when they started trying to sell me on a new product.

Sure, high pressure. Has nothing to do with the fact that India ranks 136 on the Freedom Index, let alone it&#x27;s other issues.

&gt; I WONDER IF we have ever asked ourselves what education means. Why do we go to school, why do we learn various subjects, why do we pass examinations and compete with each other for better grades? What does this so-called education mean, and what is it all about? This is really a very important question, not only for the students, but also for the parents, for the teachers, and for everyone who loves this earth. Why do we go through the struggle to be educated? Is it merely in order to pass some examinations and get a job? Or is it the function of education to prepare us while we are young to understand the whole process of life? Having a job and earning one&#x27;s livelihood is necessary - but is that all? Are we being educated only for that? Surely, life is not merely a job, an occupation; life is something extraordinarily wide and profound, it is a great mystery, a vast realm in which we function as human beings. If we merely prepare ourselves to earn a livelihood, we shall miss the whole point of life; and to understand life is much more important than merely to prepare for examinations and become very proficient in mathematics, physics, or what you will.<p>&gt; So, whether we are teachers or students, is it not important to ask ourselves why we are educating or being educated? And what does life mean? Is not life an extraordinary thing? The birds, the flowers, the flourishing trees, the heavens, the stars, the rivers and the fish therein - all this is life. Life is the poor and the rich; life is the constant battle between groups, races and nations; life is meditation; life is what we call religion, and it is also the subtle, hidden things of the mind - the envies, the ambitions, the passions, the fears, fulfilments and anxieties. All this and much more is life. But we generally prepare ourselves to understand only one small corner of it. We pass certain examinations, find a job, get married, have children, and then become more and more like machines. We remain fearful, anxious, frightened of life. So, is it the function of education to help us understand the whole process of life, or is it merely to prepare us for a vocation, for the best job we can get?<p>&gt; What is going to happen to all of us when we grow to be men and women? Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be? Have you ever asked yourselves this question? Should you not ask it? If your family is wealthy you may have a fairly good position already assured, your father may give you a comfortable job, or you may get richly married; but there also you will decay, deteriorate. Do you see?<p>&gt; Surely, education has no meaning unless it helps you to understand the vast expanse of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may earn degrees, you may have a series of letters after your name and land a very good job; but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid? So, while you are young, must you not seek to find out what life is all about? And is it not the true function of education to cultivate in you the intelligence which will try to find the answer to all these problems? Do you know what intelligence is? It is the capacity, surely, to think freely without fear, without a formula, so that you begin to discover for yourself what is real, what is true; but if you are frightened you will never be intelligent. Any form of ambition, spiritual or mundane, breeds anxiety, fear; therefore ambition does not help to bring about a mind that is clear, simple, direct, and hence intelligent.<p>&gt; You know, it is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death. Most of us have fear in one form or another; and where there is fear there is no intelligence. And is it not possible for all of us, while we are young, to be in an environment where there is no fear but rather an atmosphere of freedom - freedom, not just to do what we like, but to understand the whole process of living? Life is really very beautiful, it is not this ugly thing that we have made of it; and you can appreciate its richness, its depth, its extraordinary loveliness only when you revolt against everything - against organized religion, against tradition, against the present rotten society - so that you as a human being find out for yourself what is true. Not to imitate but to discover - that is education, is it not? It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a safe and easy way of existing; but that is not living, because in it there is fear, decay, death. To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself.<p>&gt; But you are not encouraged to do this; no one tells you to question, to find out for yourself what God is, because if you were to rebel you would become a danger to all that is false. Your parents and society want you to live safely, and you also want to live safely. Living safely generally means living in imitation and therefore in fear. Surely, the function of education is to help each one of us to live freely and without fear, is it not? And to create an atmosphere in which there is no fear requires a great deal of thinking on your part as well as on the part of the teacher, the educator.<p>&gt; Do you know what this means - what an extraordinary thing it would be to create an atmosphere in which there is no fear? And we must create it, because we see that the world is caught up in endless wars; it is guided by politicians who are always seeking power; it is a world of lawyers, policemen and soldiers, of ambitious men and women all wanting position and all fighting each other to get it. Then there are the so-called saints, the religious gurus with their followers; they also want power, position, here or in the next life. It is a mad world, completely confused, in which the communist is fighting the capitalist, the socialist is resisting both, and everybody is against somebody, struggling to arrive at a safe place, a position of power or comfort. The world is torn by conflicting beliefs, by caste and class distinctions, by separative nationalities, by every form of stupidity and cruelty - and this is the world you are being educated to fit into. You are encouraged to fit into the framework of this disastrous society; your parents want you to do that, and you also want to fit in.<p>&gt; Now, is it the function of education merely to help you to conform to the pattern of this rotten social order, or is it to give you freedom - complete freedom to grow and create a different society, a new world? We want to have this freedom, not in the future, but now, otherwise we may all be destroyed. We must create immediately an atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out for yourselves what is true, so that you become intelligent, so that you are able to face the world and understand it, not just conform to it, so that inwardly, deeply, psychologically you are in constant revolt; because it is only those who are in constant revolt that discover what is true, not the man who conforms, who follows some tradition. It is only when you are constantly inquiring, constantly observing, constantly learning, that you find truth, God, or love; and you cannot inquire, observe, learn, you cannot be deeply aware, if you are afraid. So the function of education, surely, is to eradicate, inwardly as well as outwardly, this fear that destroys human thought, human relationship and love.<p>From Think On These Things (or This Matter of Culture), Chapter 1, The Function of Education<p>By Jiddu Krishnamurti<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;13470.Think_on_These_Things" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;13470.Think_on_These_Thi...</a>

Wow, this sounds so much like China. In college I had a professor who obsessed over a conundrum: India, the world&#x27;s largest democracy, is also its poorest. Why? He believed it was due to caste, religion, and education. I wonder if India is continually looking east and trying to duplicate some of the Chinese rise to power.