Nagpur: On a random talk with parents of the city, the one most alarming issue that came to fore is everyone born after the 90’s takes offense to virtually everything and don’t seem to honour even parents view or the concept that they want to convey. The youth seem to take an offense to almost any and every thing these days.
In the last three days including Pratyusha Banerjee who played the role of Anandi in the Hindi soap Balika Vadhu, an orphan from ShradhanandAnathalaya, a brilliant student and a few others committed suicide. Most of these people were in the age group of 17 to 25 years of age.
Television actress Pratyusha Banerjee, who shot to fame for her role as Anandi in ‘Balika Vadhu’, committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan at her Goregaon residence on Friday. She was 24 years old.
While the orphan girl committed suicide by jumping into a well of the Shradhanand Anathalaya, the brilliant student of Teka Naka committed suicide by hanging from the hook in the ceiling.
Are we living in an age of hyper-sensitivity among youth?
The youth of today seem to be tightly wound guitar strings. The slightest hit and not only do they break, they get coiled up, make a shell around themselves and barricade everybody from their life including friends, relatives and even parents. The youth today seem to have very few coping skills to get them through life.
While speaking to Nagpur Today, a mother of a late teenager Vanashri Kamble said that she is a mother of two daughters, one is 22-year-old and the second one 26-year-old.
“My kids were raised with the word “No”. If they made mistakes or failed to do a job correctly they were told so and expected to do it right. They had to deal with disappointment and learn to achieve things on their own.”
However, the kids today do not want to face any disappointments, any failure, any scolding or any pressure.
While speaking to Nagpur Today, Soft Skill Expert and Counsellor Beena Mathew said that the suicide among the teenagers is because of the immense insecurity and unmanageable turbulence, emotional imbalance and lack of coping mechanisms. Beena went on add that it is observed that most girls who have committed suicide had a very fragile ego.
She said that the youth today have to face immense pressure. These pressures include
- Social pressures.
- Societal pressures.
- Financial pressures.
- Peer Group pressures.
- Psychological pressures.
- Family pressures.
While some youth develop the right socially accepted coping mechanisms, others who are mal-adjusted resort to wrong coping mechanisms. Beena claimed that those youth who find it difficult to express their emotional turmoil, mental stress and strain keep bottling up their emotions and all it takes is one more feather on the existing burden and when a couple of conducive situation like 1. Being Lonely, Dejected, Rejected 2. Finding the right opportunities, 3. Availability of the right means for committing suicide, these youth go on to commit suicide.
It has also come to fore that religion, caste, creed, colour, monetary or financial wellness is no bar for those committing suicide. Youth from all age-group, all financial strata, all religions have committed suicide. Counsellor Beena said that when a youth comes to a stage when he or she feels that all roads or door have closed, they commit suicide.
So what is the solution?
- Psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists who are young and trained specifically to treat youth with problems.
- The local government, state and the central government should make centres where youth could walk in 24 X 7 X 365 days to get counseling and advise to face their difficulties and problems.
- Round the clock Call-centres with the phone numbers pasted all over the city which can be accessed by any youth.
- Posters, banners, pamphlets in all languages English, Hindi and Marathi saying “Call before you commit suicide” to be pasted all over the city which can be read by troubled youth.
- Identifying “suicidal tendencies” especially in teenagers by the teachers of high school so that adequate advice is given to parents to prevent all such conducive atmosphere which the teenager can use to commit suicide.
- Counsellors in schools, colleges, work places, industries etc.
- Free counseling seminars to parents to rear the children in modern child rearing methods and to quit the age old method of scolding and beating to instill values or discipline.
By Samuel Gunasekharan
