Youth in Distress

The Indian youth has a mental health problem that is growing at an alarming pace. Effective mental health support at home, educational institutes, and workplaces are a must to stem the tide

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A Class X student commits suicide in Delhi over alleged harassment from teachers.

A first-year student kills himself in Mumbai after presumably being beaten up for not speaking Marathi in the train. This is the unfortunate story of two young boys who took their lives on the very same day in two different cities in the country. ‘The Hindi-Marathi language row and the incorrigible behaviour of the school teachers are both condemnable. But let us also ponder the growing and worrisome issue of mental health among the younger generation.

Our predecessors were not martyrs or superhumans, but they sure were sturdy. Comparatively, if you are a parent, guardian, or educator today, you can not disregard the emotional fragility of the young mind. Our older generations withstood wars, famines, droughts, the freedom struggle, and a bloody partition. Our parents survived economic highs and lows, communal riots, and the onslaught of the digital age. Many of our millennial childhoods had ugly shades where corporal punishment, sexual abuse and harassment, and roadside heckling were par for the course. We also grew up hearing or experiencing firsthand instances of extreme ragging. It was physical and mental torture; the kind of ignominy that broke the bodies and souls of young students.

‘There would be cautionary tales emanating from medical and engineering colleges that scared and haunted us. As terrible and unfair as the world seemed, generations survived the sticks and stones, words, and humiliation. A few gave up, but most soldiered on. Can we say the same for younger folk today? Fed on instant gratification and validation, along with an overdose of social media, Indian youth are not made of the stronger stuff of yore, and their waning mental health is growing to be a matter of concern.