It takes a village to raise a child, and between home and school exists a compact to nurture curiosity, offer steady ground when the world grows unkind, and safeguard vulnerability. The death by suicide of a Class X Delhi student lays bare the fragility of that promise. “Sorry mummy, aapka itni baar dil toda, ab last baar todunga…” The heartbreaking note left behind by the 16-year-old — a child allegedly worn down by months of censure and public shaming by teachers — shows what happens when a young person feels stranded in the very spaces in which they are meant to be nourished.
Across India, such tragic stories have become far too frequent. The National Crime Records Bureau registered 13,892 student suicides in 2023, accounting for around 8.1 per cent of the total deaths by suicide in the country. The numbers have grown by 65 per cent over a decade. The surge not only outpaces the national suicide growth rate, it is also a reflection of the unyielding academic stress, growing socio-economic uncertainty, and the increasing cultural pressures the young find themselves mired in — the shrinking space afforded to mistakes and the ever-expanding demands to be perfect or to conform; the inordinate amount of social-media exposure and the loneliness and inarticulation of youth in a world that is ostensibly more connected.
