Repeated suicides grips TN, 800 doctors to be appointed for providing counselling to students

The Tamil Nadu government will appoint 800 doctors to provide psychological counselling services to school students under the "Manavar Manasu" scheme. State School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said in a statement on Tuesday, July 26, that the project will be launched officially by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday, July 27, as stated in a report by IANS. 

Poyyamozhi said that the project would help students to improve mental health amid the tensions related to adolescence issues, pressure of studies, peer pressure and other issues related to behavioural changes in the children, as per IANS.

Several cases of student suicides have been reported from the state of Tamil Nadu recently.  In fact, the School Education Department has taken such an initiative after two students, unable to bear the pressure associated with their studies, ended their lives recently in a span of just two weeks. 

The suicide of a Plus Two student at a private residential school at Kallakurichi had sparked massive protests, leading to vandalisation of the school and torching of school buses as well as police vehicles, leading to major unrest in Kallakurichi and adjacent Viluppuram districts.

Meanwhile, the suicide of another student at Tiruvallur on Monday, July 25, at a private residential school, has also sparked outrage in the area with the parents and relatives of the child refusing to accept the body unless proper investigation is conducted.

The School Education Minister also said that the Kallakurichi school that was vandalised would commence online classes from Wednesday, July 27, onwards. He also said that discussions are on with the adjacent schools to accommodate the students of the Kallakurichi Shakthi Residential School that was vandalised, as per IANS.

Poyyamozhi also said that during the arson and rioting at the school, several certificates of both the students and teachers were lost and that the state government has taken steps to provide duplicate certificates to all those who have lost their certificates.