Education system of India is so rotten to its core that any mention of this anymore only sounds like a cliché. A sense of helplessness has clouded the people who for decades have seen that there isn’t any fundamental change in the status quo, no matter which regime is there at the helm. And naturally, the ultimate victims are the students. School-going students are suffering from severe anxiety and depression, not to say that the conditions amongst the college going youth is even more severe for they also face the immediate pressure of landing with a job as they graduate. The level of stress, depression, anxiety resulting from unrealistic expectations, lack of peer support, rampant competition etc. is only increasing day by day – so much so that many students are choosing the most unfortunate option of ending their lives altogether. According to a TOI report in Mar’18, one student is committing suicide every 55 mins in India. The same report states that 26,000 students had committed suicides during 2014-17. It hasn’t been long since we had to hear the news of IIT Hyderabad student Mark Andrew Charles succumbing to job pressure. In an yet another incident, Payal Tadvi from Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai gave up her life facing caste discrimination and harassment inside the campus.

While the psychoanalysis increasingly focuses on the immediate causes behind the students’ suicides viz. depression, stress etc. But the question remains as to what it is that causes the students go into such a state at first place? Analyses employed mainly by psychiatric means tend to make the underlying systemic factors as secondary. It must be asked why after 72 years of independence, Indian state has failed to provide an environment in the campuses which is free from any kind of discrimination. Further, why hasn’t the state been able to ensure a respectable employment to everyone. After all, what it is that makes parents have unrealistic expectations from their children? What it is that causes this rat race amongst students and starts the process of dehumanizing from their age of innocence? How is it possible that even today the students from lower-castes have to face casteist slurs by upper-caste students? All of this cannot be understood merely from psychoanalytical dimensions. Instead, those dimensions must be placed in the overall socio-economic scenario of this country. Only then, we can come to a conclusion that can be a real guide to further action. In Defense of Reason, a discussion forum, cordially invites you to have a discussion on this issue in Lamakaan on July 30, 2019. No registrations are required. Please come and do not forget to spread the word.