Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
NHRC

Responding to the 49 suicides witnessed from 2013-17, with 25 of them being Dalit and tribal students, at the Central Government’s residential schools for talented rural children, the Human Resource Development Ministry under the leadership of Prakash Javadekar has set up a committee to look into the matter. The Ministry has also set up a task force, headed by psychiatrist Dr. Jitendra Nagpal to find solutions and causes to such deaths.

“Reportedly, all, except seven, were suicides by hanging, and the bodies were found either by classmates or the school staff. The JNVs are reported to be the Central government’s pace-setting schools for talented children from rural India,” the National Human Rights Commission said Staff Reporter.

Each of the 630 JNV’s will witness two full-time counsellors, one male and female, according to the statement issued by the Department of Expenditure approving the recruitment.

The investigation which revealed the number of suicides also revealed that the few recruited councellors were just ‘overburdened’ teachers looking after the welfare of students.

Keeping in mind the disturbing trend the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) headed by former Chief Justice of India also issued a notice informing the school education secretary in the HRD Ministry on January 1 to prepare a report within six weeks. The Ministry was instructed to prepare a report regarding the recruited councellors in the campus and the other staff who is responsible to look after the students, whether students are provided with the emergency services, telephone counseling, and suicide hotline services.

The matter came into recognition after a statement was issued by Congress VP Viplove Thakur during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha.

“The schools were opened to promote national integration. Children from different parts of the country compete with each other to study in these schools and today the situation has come to such a pass that they are forced to commit suicide. This is a very serious problem. It looks like we have put our next generation into such a mental quandary that they are being forced to commit suicide,” Thakur said.

“No effort was made to understand what has led to this situation. No effort is being made to understand the backgrounds of these children, not even principals and teachers are trying to do it,” she added.

Responding to the movement proposed by the Ministry, JNV Principal, whose school witnessed a suicide in 2017, said that  “This is definitely a step in the right direction. Our students are staying away from family. JNV teachers already have a lot of responsibilities. A full-time counselor is definitely needed on campus. Having said that, (we) should also try to recruit hostel wardens as soon as possible.”

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