According to a whitepaper released by the IC3 Institute, about 29 per cent of all student suicides across India are reported from South Indian states. The institute is a volunteer-based organisation. Analysing figures from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), the report Averting Student Suicides: Research and Advocacy Task Force, acknowledges the urgency to address the issue.
Speaking about the report, Ganesh Kohli, Founder of the IC3 Institute, compared young people passing out of high school to aeroplanes without a navigation system and no sense of direction, adding that this leads them to experience unhappy lives and extreme levels of anxiety, disappointment and frustration. Systemic guidance at the school level can help resolve many of these issues, he opined, as noted in a report by The New Indian Express.
The whitepaper mentions that the 2021 NCRB report documented 13,089 student suicides, a 4.5 per cent increase from the previous year. The 2020 data showed a significant 21.2 per cent rise in student suicides compared to 2019. Over the last decade (2012-21), there were 97,571 student suicides, a 57 per cent increase from the previous decade (2002-11). In 2021, student suicides accounted for 8 per cent of total suicides in India, while suicides by persons engaged in agriculture constituted 6.7 per cent.
"I was appalled to hear that India has more student suicides than farmers. I couldn't believe it when I first heard it. We have to do everything in our power to empower our little ones and give them choices in life, while teaching them not to succumb to anxiety and depression," said Lakshmi Manchu, a long-time supporter of the IC3 Institute.
Telangana is a key focus for the Institute. In 2021, it partnered with the Telangana Social Welfare Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) to train 20 skilled school teachers through its one-year Empower programme. The goal is to extend the training to teachers and coordinators in 400 residential and marginalised schools in the coming years.
The institute's trained counsellors are also active in the state's schools serving marginalised communities. The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Mahbubnagar and the Government Girls High School in Karimnagar are two such schools.
In addition, on August 24, IC3 is organising a blindfolded music concert at HICC, Novotel, Hyderabad. The event's proceeds will support the institute's mission of training and empowering teachers in other Indian schools. The initiative aims to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to guide students on their college and career paths, as per TNIE.