Dhankhar urges RS members to discuss student suicides
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday took notice of suicides among students due to the stress of competitive exams and urged members of the House of Representatives to propose a discussion on the issue.
During the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, five additional questions were asked by members on student suicides due to examinations.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan replied to all oral supplementary questions but members continued to express concern over the issue.
Aware of the seriousness of the issue, Dhankhar said, “I appeal to the honorable members that this is an issue that we must involve ourselves in. We can make a huge contribution.”
He suggested developing an ecosystem where suicides among students can be minimized and brought to zero.
“Everyone has a role to contribute. I am open to a discussion on this issue as members may think,” he stated.
Earlier, in response to the starred or oral questions in the House of Representatives, Pradhan informed the members that 1,70,924 (1.70 lakh) suicides have been reported in 2022, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Of these, suicides due to failure in examinations amounted to 2,051 or 1.2 percent.
“I take responsibility for this (suicides by students). This must be zero,” the minister said.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, in a supplementary question, asked whether the minister plans to include data building systems, “considering that in the last decade we have seen a 70 per cent increase in the number of students committing suicide commits”.
The minister, citing the 2022 NCRB data, said such a fact is not before him.
Stating that she had submitted data in the House of Representatives under “full responsibility”, Chaturvedi spoke about the NCRB's data for the past ten years.
On the issue, Congress MP KC Venugopal said the Ministry of Education in the Rajya Sabh had replied that at least 15 students from SC/ST/OBC communities had committed suicide in Central Universities, IITs and IIMs between 2018 and 2021.
More than 13,000 students from SC/ST/OBC communities have dropped out of IITs, IIMs and central universities in the last five years, he said.
Venugopal said there is caste discrimination, mental harassment or suicides among students – and asked whether the government will take serious action against these cases.
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