Minor jumps to death from Chandanagar apartment; tedious student life can be the reason

Hyderabad: Four days after a 14-year-old boy studying Class X died after he jumped from a high-rise building in his gated community, another similar incident was again reported in Hyderabad: a Class VI student died by suicide by jumping from the 15th floor of an apartment.

Speaking about the case, Chandanagar sub-inspector P Nageswar Rao said that the incident occurred on September 29 and the victim is a 12-year-old girl. The girl usually comes back home from school at 3:30 pm and attends her hour-long Maths tuition in the same community.

However, on the day of her death, she was not interested in going to the tuition. Under the pressure of her parents, she left home. At about 4:50 pm, she went to the 15th floor, opened the balcony window, and jumped to the ground.

She received multiple injuries and died on the spot.

“The reason for her death might be the pressure to attend the tuition. Even her parents admitted that they have asked their child to go to the tuition despite her not being interested,” said the SI Nageswar Rao.

The girl’s father is working in the IT sector. The couple are natives of Uttar Pradesh and came to Hyderabad about 10 years ago. The police have registered a case and the investigation is on.

In the earlier incident, the 14-year-old boy allegedly died by suicide after he became addicted to online games and was unable to cope with the pressure of his studies.

What do the health experts say?

Health experts attribute student suicides to either family (relationship between parents and relation with family members) or personal problems (academic pressure and/or relationship issues including romantic and professional).

Most of these problems and pressures build up and weigh heavily on the students for years sometimes till a triggering factor (such as scolding by parents or strangers, failure in exams, break-up in love etc.) impulsively pushes them towards suicide. Prolonged thoughts of hopelessness and depression might make child obsessively dwell on suicide till the trigger pushes them to act out their pre-meditated thoughts.

Commenting on the 12-year-old student’s suicide Dr G Suresh Kumar, professor of psychiatry at Andhra Medical College-Government Hospital for Mental Care (AMC-GHMC) in Visakhapatnam said, “It can be multi-factorial and needs to be investigated. It’s possible that the student dislikes mathematics and wanted to skip the tuition but was forced to follow a boring routine day after day. It could be because the subject was imposed on her by her parents, though in good faith, for her academic success. Or it could have been about her opinion of her tuition teacher or she wanted to avoid someone in that class due to harassment. It is also possible that something might have happened at school that day, probably she was bullied or ignored, which made her feel low.”

“Since the girl is of a vulnerable adolescent age, she might have felt monotonous with a routine life that did not let her rest adequately after school. She may have felt that even her parents did not understand her and imposed their wishes on her and she had nobody to confide her problems. All these reasons could have started a chain of negative thoughts, helplessness and hopelessness and made her consider ending her existence so that she could be free from the pressures and tortures of a dull life,” added Dr Suresh.

The girl’s parents, instead of imposing the tuition class on her, could have spoken to her, tried to find out why she didn’t want to go that day and let her rest. Nowadays, there are fun ways to study mathematics for those who do not enjoy the subject. Since her father is from an IT background, he too could have helped the child with the subject even if she missed the tuition class for a day or two. Moreover, parents should always identify the strong areas and aptitudes of their children and encourage them to pursue those subjects, be it music or some sports or the arts, said the doctor.

The doctor also said that nowadays, students’ routine is tedious and repetitive. “Right from the early morning tuition to school to again tuition soon after coming back from school is all this generation’s students know about. Some decades ago, students used to head for the playground in the evenings after coming from school. Parents are hell-bent on getting their kids admitted to the IITs and medical colleges and therefore the pressure of coaching classes starts from an early age, sometimes from the age of 12 or 13 years,” the psychiatrist said.