Why does a 17-year-old throw himself in front of a speeding train minutes after texting his father? Are you going to be the only daughter from now on? ” A life of hope and possibility vanishes in the blink of an eye, leaving families in constant grief. The bereaved family should be left alone in this moment of grief, but the news deeply upset the author of these lines. There has been a spate of teenage suicides in recent months. The two hail from Kota City, which has an enviable reputation as a pressure cooker that mass-produces successful participants in the IIT. Not long ago, two young men hanged themselves in their room. It’s shocking that none of my classmates, classmates, teachers, coaches, mentors realized they were falling under the radar. Even weeks of them missing classes and interacting with other residents failed to create an alarming moment.
What are the circumstances that drive young minds to generate self-destructive thoughts, choose death over life, and plunge into dark abysses? Not all such cases can be explained by clinical depression. is not.
Not long ago, most reported young suicides were girls. Victims of rape, stalking and acid attacks. A good number of “suicides” appeared to hide (dis)honour killings. Unwanted pregnancies, unrequited love, self-sacrifice to relieve poor parents from the unbearable burden of getting their daughters married properly, domestic violence, and impossible demands for a dowry are examples of extreme self-harm. Assisted suicide is just as punishable as murder, and often unpunished. What’s so tragic is not the failure of law enforcement, but the widespread indifference and ostrich-like mentality of not facing the problem.
Deathly despair spares the rich, and is not limited to those suffering from terminal excruciating illnesses. But here we are talking about young people just past their teens who are giving their lives away. What kind of failure or fear of failure is it that draws you closer to family and friends? Unfortunately, sensation-seeking bloodthirsty newshounds jump on juicy rumors when celebrities are involved. Allusions abound about substance abuse, promiscuity, and more. There is little protection against predators roaming the Internet that prey on children. Lost stories of “local” news buried in the least-visited pages of newspapers and fleeting mentions in breaking news tickers on TV are rarely followed up, reducing fatalities to forgettable statistics.
A dangerous epidemic turns into an epidemic that we must learn to live with. Life goes on until the virus hits close to home. There are inspiring words of ancient wisdom that speak of dreams and visions. When roles are reversed, young people’s dreams are shattered, and older people start chasing mirages, instead of imagining a future where young people can realize their dreams, the problem grows and spirals out of control. It is this mismatch that is heartbreaking.
India is a country with an overwhelmingly young population. People in their mid-teens to early twenties form a large segment in demographic profile. Like everything else, there is great diversity in young dreams. There are young people in cities, small towns and villages. Literacy has improved, but the information gap is real. Caste, gender, employment status, etc. make the situation complicated. We cannot turn a blind eye to extreme wealth and poverty. The danger of turning a dream into a humiliating nightmare is real. There was a time when generation gaps and clashes of values became a hot topic. These phrases sound empty and meaningless at the moment.
Different generations have always coexisted. Parents and children, by definition, belong to different generations. There will always be spoiled brats and delinquents, i.e. juveniles who break the law, but in living memory there has never been such a tragic and complete breakdown of communication between son and father, mother and daughter. It is not. This is what made the child worse than an orphan, even if the parents were alive. The so-called nuclear family can catastrophically split into subatomic particles.
Stating that this is a global phenomenon serves no useful purpose. Pursuing its ambitions to emerge as a great power, India must find solutions to its social problems.
The ideal of vasudhaiva kutumbkam can only be realized when we accept that no one is an island. There are no lesser children of God whose death does not weaken us.
push peche pants
Former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpehpant@gmail.com
