SUI CI DE I N I NDI A
Why in news?
Suicides in India have increased by 23% from 2000 to 2015 according to data released by the National Health Profile, 2018.
Causes of suicides in India
• Farmers Suicides
o The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report
underlines that indebtedness is found to be the single
largest underlying cause behind farmers’ suicide.
o Maharashtra which had the largest number of farmer
suicides concluded that 93 percent of all these suicides
are due to debt.
• Student Suicides
o Parents’ over expectations on their academic achievements and criticisms on their underperformance could be contributing factors
• Suicide in armed forces
Key Insights
• Health (mental and physical) concerns are the leading causes of suicides in India, accounting for over 20% of all suicides
• Housewives comprise the largest share of
suicides (18%); while farmers comprise
11%. Some has linked this to nature of the social transformation in the nature of the family, which is occurring in India.
• Suicides among most demographics are declining over time and farmer suicides are declining the fastest
• Suicide ‘contagion’ can occur if suicides
are overly dramatized and/or played up.
• Mental Healthcare Act 2017 has decriminalized suicide.
o Soldiers posted in far flung areas and on prolonged deployment undergo tremendous mental stress
o This could be compounded by the lack of basic amenities, ineffectual leadership, and humiliation at the
hands of their officers.
• Indebtedness in Rural India
o The NSSO data indicates that in 2002 about 27 percent of rural Indian households were indebted and 18 percent of urban households. In 2013 the rural indebtedness in Indian households had gone up to 31
percent.
• Family problems’ and ‘illness’ are the leading reported causes of suicides.
• Substances abuse: Many of the substance abusers attempt suicide while under the influence of alcohol
• Other reasons such as poverty, unemployment, lover affairs and bankruptcy are very insignificant reported
causes of suicides.
Challenges
• Role of Media in Spreading Suicide Contagion
o It has the tendency to glorify and sensationalize the deaths resulting in a highly charged emotional
atmosphere that promotes further suicidal behaviour.
o Behavioural and psychiatric problems make cluster members more susceptible to suicide. And a significant number of these appear to be associated with suicide stories in the mass media.
71 ©Vision IAS
• Impact of internet and other communication networks on suicide
o Excessive users of internet were found to have high scores on anxiety and depression
o Games such as ‘Blue Whale’ which is encouraging people to kill themselves.
Way forward
• Opening up of suicide prevention clinics in all the Medical College Hospitals, District Head Quarters Hospitals etc. will help to prevent repeat attempts
• Revamping the educational system with an objective to promote holistic development of the child, rather than
the undue emphasis on scoring of marks in various subjects
• Restricting the access to means of suicide including measures for control of availability of pesticides, medications, etc.
• Largest share of suicides in India is committed by housewives whose concerns can also be addressed through
improved access to mental and physical healthcare.
• It is imperative for policy makers in India to take note and design interventions that can address distress
amongst various population groups and not aggravate by misjudging and focusing on indebtedness alone.
• Easy access to credit and better MSPs can help reducing farmer suicides
• Media should avoid glamorizing the victim, for example highly publicized politician visits and offering special packages might aggravate suicide contagion.
o It should avoid excessive detailing of the suicide method
o It is imperative that the media has a code of ethics and guidelines for reporting suicides.
7.5. THE R TE AME NDME NT BI LL, 2017
Why in News?
Recently, in the monsoon session Lok Sabha passed the amendment to The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education (second amendment) Bill, 2017 to abolish the ‘No- Detention’ policy in schools.
Background
• The 86th Constitution Amendment Act, 2002 requires the State to provide free and compulsory elementary
education to all children. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 seeks to
give effect to this Amendment under which all children between the ages of 6 and 14 years have the right to elementary education (class 1-8) in a neighbourhood school.
• The Section 30 (1) of the RTE Act states that a child cannot be detained in any class till the completion of elementary education.
• In recent years, two expert committees-Geeta Bhukkal (2014) and TSR Subramanian (2016)- reviewed the no-
detention provision in the RTE Act and recommended it be removed or be discontinued in a phased manner.
• As per the amendment bill, regular examination will be held in Classes 5 and 8 and if a child fails there is a
provision to give her additional opportunity to take a re-examination within two months. If she fails again in the re-examination, the relevant Central or State Government may decide to allow schools to detain the child.
Arguments against No Detention Policy
• No incentives for children to learn and for the teachers to teach: there is no provision under RTE Act to ensure
objective measurement of learning outcomes through criteria such as attendance, test scores or examinations at the end of every class and thus automatic promotion reduces incentives for both children and teachers.
• Children become non-serious, inattentive to studies and irregular in attendance: for many students the Mid Day Meal is the only incentive, thus though No detention policy resulted in significant increase in enrollment, there has been little or no improvement in academic standards or quality of education.
• Students lack required educational competence, knowledge and skills relevant to higher classes: thus their
poor performance further enhances in every subsequent class. Moreover, promoting laggards drags down the
standard of the whole class and handicaps the teacher’s ability to teach the curriculum at the expected pace
which is unfair to the majority of the students in the class.
• Increases the pressure and tension on the child: Failing to ensure that child learns fundamentals of language
(mother tongue) and basic arithmetic in primary classes increases the pressure and tension on the child and she may start drifting away from regular schooling system.
72 ©Vision IAS
• Reduction of dropout rate is an artificial construct and illusion created by No detention policy: Automatic promotion of children only rolls over and postpones the problem of dropouts as seen from shoot up of dropouts in class 8 at the end of elementary stage.
• Number of students failing in class 9 examinations has been on increase in many states: In Delhi, for instance, the number of repeating students as a percentage of total students enrolled in Class 9 rose from 2.8% in 2010 to 13.4% in 2014, thus resulting in many states demanding a review of no detention policy.
Arguments for the No Detention Policy
• Detaining children at the elementary level damages their self-esteem and give them a permanent inferiority complex: The social stigma associated with “failing”, has deeply damaging effects on the psyche of the child.
• Detention leads to increased dropouts and rise in number of social problems: Fear of failing in examinations and being detained has a detrimental effect on curricular learning for children. Detention leads to children dropping out of school and taking to vagrancy, begging and petty crime. On the other hand, keeping children in school prevents a host of social problems, including juvenile delinquency and child marriage.
• Detention makes a child repeat entire syllabus of the class: However, instead of detaining and repeating the
same whole material again for another nine months, weaker areas of the child can be selectively targeted to cover the gaps in two or three months.
• Learning as a continuous process: Learning takes place in a continuum and any pass or fail categorization at a particular point of time is a narrow simplification and educationally invalid.
• Issues with poor and vulnerable children: In rural areas and among below poverty line families, educational awareness is missing which often result in late admissions in the schools. In other cases, children miss school for long periods due to poverty, illness, engagement in child labour and thus lag behind in their studies, performing badly in the examination. Detention will only aggravate these weaknesses and encourage them to drop out and remain unschooled forever.
• Steady rise in the GER at the elementary level for the marginalized sections of the society: for both boys and
girls, as well as for Scheduled Castes, Tribes and other marginalised sections since the coming into effect of
the no-detention policy. In a deeply fragmented society such as India, this is a significant gain which should
not be reversed.
Way Forward
• Education should be inclusive and should have a common curriculum, so that all children become familiar with the basic concepts, tenets, principles and ethos of an Indian education.
• Detention should be resorted to only after giving the child remedial coaching and at least two extra chances to prove his capability.
• As recommended by TSR Subramanian committee if a child again fails to clear the examination, she should
also be given other opportunities of pursuing her education through a vocational stream so that she can demonstrate her abilities and competencies elsewhere.
• Advances in technology must provide an additional ‘augmentation’ avenue to help the slow-learner child makeup for the lost ground.
• Simultaneously other significant areas such as teacher training, quality and accountability mechanisms must be improved in a holistic manner.
Why in news?
Suicides in India have increased by 23% from 2000 to 2015 according to data released by the National Health Profile, 2018.
Causes of suicides in India
• Farmers Suicides
o The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report
underlines that indebtedness is found to be the single
largest underlying cause behind farmers’ suicide.
o Maharashtra which had the largest number of farmer
suicides concluded that 93 percent of all these suicides
are due to debt.
• Student Suicides
o Parents’ over expectations on their academic achievements and criticisms on their underperformance could be contributing factors
• Suicide in armed forces
Key Insights
• Health (mental and physical) concerns are the leading causes of suicides in India, accounting for over 20% of all suicides
• Housewives comprise the largest share of
suicides (18%); while farmers comprise
11%. Some has linked this to nature of the social transformation in the nature of the family, which is occurring in India.
• Suicides among most demographics are declining over time and farmer suicides are declining the fastest
• Suicide ‘contagion’ can occur if suicides
are overly dramatized and/or played up.
• Mental Healthcare Act 2017 has decriminalized suicide.
o Soldiers posted in far flung areas and on prolonged deployment undergo tremendous mental stress
o This could be compounded by the lack of basic amenities, ineffectual leadership, and humiliation at the
hands of their officers.
• Indebtedness in Rural India
o The NSSO data indicates that in 2002 about 27 percent of rural Indian households were indebted and 18 percent of urban households. In 2013 the rural indebtedness in Indian households had gone up to 31
percent.
• Family problems’ and ‘illness’ are the leading reported causes of suicides.
• Substances abuse: Many of the substance abusers attempt suicide while under the influence of alcohol
• Other reasons such as poverty, unemployment, lover affairs and bankruptcy are very insignificant reported
causes of suicides.
Challenges
• Role of Media in Spreading Suicide Contagion
o It has the tendency to glorify and sensationalize the deaths resulting in a highly charged emotional
atmosphere that promotes further suicidal behaviour.
o Behavioural and psychiatric problems make cluster members more susceptible to suicide. And a significant number of these appear to be associated with suicide stories in the mass media.
71 ©Vision IAS
• Impact of internet and other communication networks on suicide
o Excessive users of internet were found to have high scores on anxiety and depression
o Games such as ‘Blue Whale’ which is encouraging people to kill themselves.
Way forward
• Opening up of suicide prevention clinics in all the Medical College Hospitals, District Head Quarters Hospitals etc. will help to prevent repeat attempts
• Revamping the educational system with an objective to promote holistic development of the child, rather than
the undue emphasis on scoring of marks in various subjects
• Restricting the access to means of suicide including measures for control of availability of pesticides, medications, etc.
• Largest share of suicides in India is committed by housewives whose concerns can also be addressed through
improved access to mental and physical healthcare.
• It is imperative for policy makers in India to take note and design interventions that can address distress
amongst various population groups and not aggravate by misjudging and focusing on indebtedness alone.
• Easy access to credit and better MSPs can help reducing farmer suicides
• Media should avoid glamorizing the victim, for example highly publicized politician visits and offering special packages might aggravate suicide contagion.
o It should avoid excessive detailing of the suicide method
o It is imperative that the media has a code of ethics and guidelines for reporting suicides.
7.5. THE R TE AME NDME NT BI LL, 2017
Why in News?
Recently, in the monsoon session Lok Sabha passed the amendment to The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education (second amendment) Bill, 2017 to abolish the ‘No- Detention’ policy in schools.
Background
• The 86th Constitution Amendment Act, 2002 requires the State to provide free and compulsory elementary
education to all children. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 seeks to
give effect to this Amendment under which all children between the ages of 6 and 14 years have the right to elementary education (class 1-8) in a neighbourhood school.
• The Section 30 (1) of the RTE Act states that a child cannot be detained in any class till the completion of elementary education.
• In recent years, two expert committees-Geeta Bhukkal (2014) and TSR Subramanian (2016)- reviewed the no-
detention provision in the RTE Act and recommended it be removed or be discontinued in a phased manner.
• As per the amendment bill, regular examination will be held in Classes 5 and 8 and if a child fails there is a
provision to give her additional opportunity to take a re-examination within two months. If she fails again in the re-examination, the relevant Central or State Government may decide to allow schools to detain the child.
Arguments against No Detention Policy
• No incentives for children to learn and for the teachers to teach: there is no provision under RTE Act to ensure
objective measurement of learning outcomes through criteria such as attendance, test scores or examinations at the end of every class and thus automatic promotion reduces incentives for both children and teachers.
• Children become non-serious, inattentive to studies and irregular in attendance: for many students the Mid Day Meal is the only incentive, thus though No detention policy resulted in significant increase in enrollment, there has been little or no improvement in academic standards or quality of education.
• Students lack required educational competence, knowledge and skills relevant to higher classes: thus their
poor performance further enhances in every subsequent class. Moreover, promoting laggards drags down the
standard of the whole class and handicaps the teacher’s ability to teach the curriculum at the expected pace
which is unfair to the majority of the students in the class.
• Increases the pressure and tension on the child: Failing to ensure that child learns fundamentals of language
(mother tongue) and basic arithmetic in primary classes increases the pressure and tension on the child and she may start drifting away from regular schooling system.
72 ©Vision IAS
• Reduction of dropout rate is an artificial construct and illusion created by No detention policy: Automatic promotion of children only rolls over and postpones the problem of dropouts as seen from shoot up of dropouts in class 8 at the end of elementary stage.
• Number of students failing in class 9 examinations has been on increase in many states: In Delhi, for instance, the number of repeating students as a percentage of total students enrolled in Class 9 rose from 2.8% in 2010 to 13.4% in 2014, thus resulting in many states demanding a review of no detention policy.
Arguments for the No Detention Policy
• Detaining children at the elementary level damages their self-esteem and give them a permanent inferiority complex: The social stigma associated with “failing”, has deeply damaging effects on the psyche of the child.
• Detention leads to increased dropouts and rise in number of social problems: Fear of failing in examinations and being detained has a detrimental effect on curricular learning for children. Detention leads to children dropping out of school and taking to vagrancy, begging and petty crime. On the other hand, keeping children in school prevents a host of social problems, including juvenile delinquency and child marriage.
• Detention makes a child repeat entire syllabus of the class: However, instead of detaining and repeating the
same whole material again for another nine months, weaker areas of the child can be selectively targeted to cover the gaps in two or three months.
• Learning as a continuous process: Learning takes place in a continuum and any pass or fail categorization at a particular point of time is a narrow simplification and educationally invalid.
• Issues with poor and vulnerable children: In rural areas and among below poverty line families, educational awareness is missing which often result in late admissions in the schools. In other cases, children miss school for long periods due to poverty, illness, engagement in child labour and thus lag behind in their studies, performing badly in the examination. Detention will only aggravate these weaknesses and encourage them to drop out and remain unschooled forever.
• Steady rise in the GER at the elementary level for the marginalized sections of the society: for both boys and
girls, as well as for Scheduled Castes, Tribes and other marginalised sections since the coming into effect of
the no-detention policy. In a deeply fragmented society such as India, this is a significant gain which should
not be reversed.
Way Forward
• Education should be inclusive and should have a common curriculum, so that all children become familiar with the basic concepts, tenets, principles and ethos of an Indian education.
• Detention should be resorted to only after giving the child remedial coaching and at least two extra chances to prove his capability.
• As recommended by TSR Subramanian committee if a child again fails to clear the examination, she should
also be given other opportunities of pursuing her education through a vocational stream so that she can demonstrate her abilities and competencies elsewhere.
• Advances in technology must provide an additional ‘augmentation’ avenue to help the slow-learner child makeup for the lost ground.
• Simultaneously other significant areas such as teacher training, quality and accountability mechanisms must be improved in a holistic manner.
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