The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Sukhdev Rajbhar has convened an all-party meeting to explore measures for controlling escalating number of suicide by students.
In the Zero Hour on Wednesday members of the House expressed concern over the matter. Following that the Speaker proposed the meet, the date for which is yet to be decided.
According to news reports, about 20 boys and girls have committed suicide in the last 23 days in Lucknow alone.
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Raising the issue, Pramod Tiwari of the Congress described the trend as disturbing and said a thorough reality check was needed whether the onus for the large number of suicides by college and university students was on the society, the law and order situation, or there is fault in the examination system.
Mr. Tiwari mentioned the suicide committed by a girl, Neelam Shukla, in Kanpur, who was gang-raped and when her father failed to get justice, she was forced to take the extreme step.
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Blaming the electronic and print media, the Congress MLA said suicide cases should not be sensationalised. He urged the Speaker to convene a meeting of members of all the parties, social activists, psychiatrists and media personnel to discuss measures for making the environment conducive for the college going youth.
Hukum Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party said from 2005 to 2009 on an average 3000-4000 suicides were reported in each year. Stating that expectations from their wards had created a pressure-cooker type of situation for the youth, Mr. Singh said the parents were equally responsible for the suicide rate going up. Tuition, which had assumed the form of a disease, had also become a source of tension for the students, the BJP member said, and added that instead of taking classes in schools the teachers gave tuitions in their homes.
Mr. Singh said the spate of suicides should be treated as a national issue and urged the Speaker to convene a meeting.
The leader of BJP Legislature Party, Om Prakash Singh stated that apart from expectations from the wards and the erosion in family and teachers-students relationship, consumer culture too had a fair share in the increasing trend. He favoured symposiums and workshops and added that the government should take the initiative for creating a better environment as suicides were becoming a mental disease.
Deepak Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said the minimum age of admission in schools should be fixed at five years.
Expressing concern at the increase in suicides, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Lalji Verma assured the House that steps would be taken to control the trend. He supported the members’ demand for an all-party meeting on the issue.
The Speaker, Mr. Rajbhar laid stress on strengthening the value system, which he claimed had been eroded. Mr. Rajbhar felt the need of finding measures to control the trend and agreed to convene an all-party meeting soon.