Classrooms in turmoi

SC's 15 commandments to shield students from despair

- MANISH KUMAR

IN his seminal book, Education and the Significance of Life, spiritual speaker, seeker and writer Jiddu Krishnamurti says the function of education is to create human beings who are integrated and therefore intelligent. "The mind of a child must not be conditioned by fear, competition, or compulsion." The true success of education lies not in grades or rankings but in the holistic growth of a human being capable of living with dignity, confidence, and purpose." In contrast to these ideals, the current academic framework, particularly competitive examination systems, often subject students to relentless psychological pressure. The very soul of education appears to have been distorted. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2022 reveals a distressing reality of the 1,70,924 suicides recorded in India that year, 13,044 were students, with 2,248 linked to failures in examinations.

It is in this context that the Supreme Court on July 25 delivered a pivotal ruling in Sukdeb Saha vs State of Andhra Pradesh & others, addressing the escalating crisis of student suicides in India. While adjudicating on a specific case of a 17-year-old student's 'death by suicide' in Visakhapatnam, the court issued comprehensive interim guidelines to safeguard mental health of students across all educational institutions.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said there remained a "legislative and regulatory vacuum" in the country with respect to a unified, enforceable framework for suicide prevention of students in educational institutions, coaching centres, and student-centric environments. It said the continued loss of young lives, often due to preventable causes rooted in unattended psychological distress, academic overburden, social stigma, and institutional insensitivity, reflect a systemic failure that cannot be ignored.