It was a rainy Tuesday, just past noon, when the phone rang to say that Vikram had just hanged himself in his study. Few frantic calls later, the dreaded news was confirmed that by the time he was taken to the hospital, he had died. My 18-year-old cousin had committed suicide. A daytime nightmare that was the culmination of a common Indian dream – the IIT dream.
Vikram was a delightful, cheerful, beautiful boy who brought much joy to his family. A promising young man who could not bear the pressure of an upcoming engineering college entrance exam — the JEE or Joint Entrance Exam.
This year there was a demand to further postpone the exams due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Supreme Court rejected the plea for postponement and the final date of the exam was announced for September.
This news reached Vikram on 17 August and he was dismayed. Scores of students like him were hoping that the NEET/JEE exams would be further postponed. The prolonged lockdown had heightened their anxiety and online tutorials were getting on their nerves.
But Vikram’s death by suicide is not a standalone case. And the pandemic year and postponed exams have only made it worse.
He would have, perhaps, not taken the extreme step that day if the exam date was not confirmed. However, he was worried about disappointing his parents; he was afraid of the exam.
One sole aim
The pressure on students builds early on. Middle-class Indian families seek security in a stable future for their children via professional courses – especially engineering and medicine degrees – those that necessitate tough entrance exams. Parents work hard to provide for tuitions and coaching classes. They also spend all their time to help make a conducive environment at home for children to study unobstructed. They forego holidays, parties, and entertainment activities for this sole aim.
Vikram’s parents did all this and more and ensured that he had all the amenities to pay attention to what was most important – prepare for the JEE.
Also read: Enraged over Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide? Students dying in Kota’s IIT, IAS factories too
The case for JEE
The Joint Entrance Examination, organised by the National Testing Agency (NTA), is a national-level competitive test for admission to undergraduate engineering courses.
In 2020, the JEE exams were to be held twice — in January and then in April, and students could appear for either one or both the sessions, and only their best score would be considered final. When the pandemic made the world upside down, many students had not even finished giving their class 12 board exams. JEE, due to be held in April, was postponed.
Often called the mother of all exams, the JEE exams are perhaps one of the toughest in the world. Over 10 lakh students were to sit for the JEE Mains, out of whom 2.2 lakh would qualify for the JEE Advanced, and only around 10,000 students would make it to the IITs.
The question papers, said to be unpredictable, cover Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics with an enormous syllabus that sometimes takes at least four years of preparation, and there is negative marking.
Exam year 2020 – one million to appear
Vikram was one amongst the nearly 10 lakh candidates registered for the September JEE main exam this year. The sheer scale of the competition and the burden of expectations was weighing him down. He got an anxiety attack the evening before he died. His head was hurting and he threw up. His parents tried to do what they could – assured him that the results won’t matter. It was important to now appear for the exam, which would be the culmination of his relentless preparation of the last several years. His mock exams were going well, only Chemistry was proving to be a bit tricky. He told his best friend a few days ago that he was forgetting formulas. Everyone counselled him to just take the exam and see what happens.
He didn’t want to. Next morning he got up as usual and told his mother that he was going to attend an online preparatory session by the coaching institute he was enrolled in. He went to his room and locked it. After an hour, Vikram’s mother just went to check on him on a hunch. When she opened the door with a spare key, she found him hanging.
Also read: Here’s how govt plans to hold NEET, JEE Mains next month amid Covid risks
Death of a dream
There is no greater tragedy for parents than to see their child die. This was worse than that. There is no closure, no redemption.
The burden lies on the collective conscience of the nation. Vikram is not a stand-alone case. There are news of students suicide from around the country. His own friend had died in a similar way just a month ago. Many students had died by suicide after being unable to clear the first round of JEE in January. Many other do the same in coaching centres or even in the engineering colleges. This is a well-known fact in India.
The exam is designed to eliminate people or reject candidates, not select them. It is so competitive that every year the exam is made tougher. The difference of one or two marks can make the rank go down by thousands.
There have been suggestions about how the test format can be changed so that it becomes less about merit lists where higher ranks are only achieved by rote learning.
Increasing the number of engineering colleges in the country is also important. Despite the lure of the private colleges, students prefer the national institutes because they are more reputed, get better placements and have relatively lesser fees.
Also read: JEE-NEET brings another student protest before Modi govt. This time, opposition is united
The coaching industry
The clamour for admission to these colleges has led to the spawning of a huge coaching industry in India—especially in Rajasthan’s Kota.
The coaching classes are perhaps the most subversive part of the story of the IIT dream. While engineering may not be as desirable a career option anymore as it was in the 1970s and ’80s, the admission to these institutes of higher education seems to be a marker of academic excellence. A notion that the coaching institutes routinely sell in the expensive front-page newspaper ads they publish after each result with photographs of the so-called ‘toppers’.
‘IIT coaching’ begins quite early, often up to four years before the actual JEE exam. School education is either inappropriate or the competition makes it inadequate, and that is when parents make a beeline for the coaching centres. These centres not only charge hefty fees, but they are also completely unregulated. Shaming, scolding, creating faux competition within students often can add to the feeling of inadequacy and worthlessness.
There is extreme pressure on not just the students but also on the parents. While a government committee had recommended a regulator for coaching institutes, it has not happened.
The 2020 fight continues
The Covid-19 year is a dreadful one on many accounts, leading to cases of severe mental stress and anxiety. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput and the subsequent eulogising of that incident has had an impact on many. Vikram was also deeply affected by that news. Suicide has not just become common parlance, but prime time TV in India also play havoc with the minds of people who are already on the edge.
Vikram’s act shook his family and his friends, and perhaps some parents who are paying close attention to the mental state of their children. But his death was a small news item in the local newspaper. The larger fight to get into the IITs continues.
There is a clamour to get JEE postponed and it is gathering support from state chief ministers. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has also joined in.
Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput was right to hide his depression, India is no country for mental health
Burden of expectation
From the beginning, there is pressure to make it. And in trying to make it, Vikram had to select study time over everything else. Hanging out with friends, going for holidays, fooling around, having the time to do absolutely nothing had probably not existed in his life for the past few years.
The horrors of the IIT dream do not end in the coaching class nor do they see a break at home. To quote the cult Netflix show — Dark — of which Vikram seems to have been a fan of, “the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning”.
The author is a former BBC Journalist and currently a Business Communication faculty at Bhavan’s SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). Views are personal.
This year exam about to happen in April 2020 . Lockdown started in march end. Every serious student completed their preparation till December 2019 and attempted once in January 2020. Please don’t blame for failure of any individual to whole system. It’s unacceptable that someone missed preparation time. May be you don’t know reality of competitive exam , out of 15 lakhs nearly 10-12 lakhs are not able to get more than 10% marks in these entrance exams. Those are serious for study they are getting results in any difficult circumstances and those are not deserving they can’t get in better situation but all noise created by non deserving that we know well.
How can these people be so hurtful in the comments?! Its not child! Its the entire system. Stop judging! I’m in the exact situation and I can under and relate to each and every line of this article. The nightmare that we go through at coaching, if not compensated by our parents support or our friends or if it’s an average kid who has been putting 100% efforts but being literally bullied by coaching teachers etc can lead to this. All these adults are literally just sitting at home judging kids. I haven’t read one comment in which they empathised with Vikram. We’ve pushed ourselves to our maximum these last 4 years and to make such sudden changes in plan( not blaming any ministry or person) can lead to a very high stress and pressure situation. On top of that, there are thousands of fake youtubers just making videos every second to push hopes of getting the exams postponed. And these suicides happen when the child is actually overthinking about their future, do you not see how mature that is?!! We are putting our all in, even at this age, to make our careers and make our loving parents happy. Our own thoughts can blind us heavily sometimes. And then there’s also the fact that not all parents are that communicative and expressive( even though I know they have the best hopes at heart, but this is true in my case), but still we see past it and somehow get through it. But if we don’t, then these “mature adults” like the ones in this comment section criticise us in the real world. Studying in such situations especially knowing that there are only 10,000 students who will get into IIT’s is very stressful, we instead start forgetting everything we’ve studied and all of this leads to complete burnout. All we ask is that you empathise, can’t you all even do that?
RIP the soul of Vikram. My sincere condolences.
However, how do you hold SC and government responsible for the sad incident? The JEE Main 2nd examination that was to be held in April’2020 got postponed for five months up to September’2020. Almost one semester is lost! Any further delay would have jeopardised the fate of all JEE exam related students. Did SC or govt have any choice? Rather those people are responsible for such sad incidents who gave false hopes to the innocent students and their families. My condolences once again.
You are only considering one side of the coin! Let’s say we postpone the exams to next year! What will happen to the students who have already dropped last year and we’re preparing to give exams this year! There will be more such cases of we just blatantly follow what opposition (Rahul Gandhi) has chosen to support!
The core problem here is because parents and students both are not considering the potential they actually have! There is no need to just blindly give these exams if you don’t have the affinity towards these subjects. In schools everyone is taught only about sciences, no curriculum focusses on skills which are actually needed in life for example financial management, vocational skills, arts etc. Everyone is made to believe that if you choose science then you are intelligent if you are choosing commerce you were back bencher and God forbid if you chose arts you are definitely a failure. And this is what gets imprinted in every students’ mind.
After going through the NEP 2020 and I could see a change which the administration is hoping to achieve but there are still things which need to be made a priority! Having a counselor in school is absolutely a must for example.
I am not an expert in this field I am just a product of the same system. Had coaching, felt the same pressure. So I can understand what are things missing in the system.
Not only vikram so many students are imagine their future will be brighter after completing JEE . Parents are also very much anxiety on their kids. God give strength to vikram’s parents.
Its over expectations from parents and society. Pandemic or nopandemic, every year many students commits suiside due to over expectations. I don’t say lack of preparation, but every one can’t get in to IITs. There are limited seats. Parents should prepare their children to face the exams, Whatever the result .
Seems nobody is taking this “sponsored” news and the media The Print!
Postpone the exams, COVID is steeping, India will belted too many cases crossing over lakhs after the exams, not right time for the exam…
What was stopping Vikram from registering for the Jan 2021 JEE exam instead? Honestly, wtf is happening over here? Why are people whom corona has not even remotely affected using corona as a victim card to cover their personal incompetencies?
Only cowards commit suicide. IIT is not meant for everyone. Nothing wrong in trying it out. Sincere effort is required. If you get it OK., If not that is not the end of the road. There are innumerable options available to become someone in this life. Human life is precious. It is not meant to end up like this. Blaming the government and the supreme court is not acceptable. What about the other students who have been relentlessly working for this exam.
Your family must have pit an undue pressure on the student means you are indirectly responsible for it. Writing such articles is misleading youth of the country.
Your family must have pit an undue pressure on the student means you are indirectly responsible for it. Writing such articles is misleading youth of the country.
What is wrong with all these people who’ve made such hurtful comments on Vikram? It’s not the child! I’m currently in the same situation and I can understand and relate to each and every line of this article. Unless you are in the same situation please stop commenting, especially these adults who have no clue about this year’s pressure. They keep postponing and we have to study the same thing over and over again, it’s leading to complete burnout. We’ve pushed ourselves for 4 years to the absolute maximum. Studying the same thing again and again can also make you forget it especially in these high stress and pressure situations. the nightmare that we go through in coaching, if not compensated by our parents support, what do you think will happen? It’s not like every parent is super communicative and expresssive. Stop judging kids!! Empathise instead and if the society wouldn’t have been so cruel, he wouldn’t have done it. I’m not supporting his action at all but you people can’t even understand the situation online, what if one of you met him in person and told him all of the stuff you wrote about
How long exam should be postponed? Have you thought, if the exam is not conducted all the students will be pushed to next year? I. E double number of Students for same seats? Then how much pressure student’s will have to face.?
How long exam should be postponed? Have you thought, if the exam is not conducted all the students will be pushed to next year? I. E double number of Students for same seats? Then how much pressure student’s will have to face.?
Every year v have student suicides either before, during r after the results. Studies say highest in the world. Educationists n psychologists should study and create appropriate counseling in educational institutions. But in no case this is justification for No Exams r No selection process. Then there is no challenge in life n same trend will continue in day to day life also.
Fake article , Even w/o covid students do sucide
Fake article
Author must have got money to put this. The Print is always against the Government. If Government saying no exam then they will say Modi Government is destroying students career. So whatever government doing they will always oppose.
It’s such a horrible tragedy. This end of a young life.why why.young people should be told that there is more to life than becoming enginners etc
Parents themselves are under pressure as they want their children to have a better life.Parents also must be given counselling. It’s horrible parental pressure.and we all are guilty of it
Don’t ever become depress by such exams. If these exams were so important then all the famous personalities would have cracked it. Your life is not so small that it starts getting controlled by such exams.
The current government is trying to change that by proposing a new National Education Policy to change dependence on one single exam. The opposition is opposing even that.
The idea of these writers from elite institutes is to oppose anything proposed by the government.
Totally misleading and planted article. Holding of exams now is a necessity since lot of delay has already occurred. Loss of a young life is always saddening however, the exams cannot be blamed here. Some people try to hide their shortcomings using the natural calamity, COVID 19 in this instance, as a shield whereas some see it as an opportunity and used the additional time to bolster their preparation. This article however, is motivated as the sole idea behind was to convey as to how Rahul Gandhi Is more concerned about the students and has joined the protest. The author would do well to offer better solutions to the problems raised and cite better examples worthy of emulation rather than a person who is yet to do a honest days work in his life so far.
Your cousin was ambitious but at the same time a wastrel. Public policy decisions can’t be dictated by concerns about the ambitious wastrel cowards. You want that a system to produce best of engineers and doctors should lie idle for a year so that a few ambitious wastrel cowards should not face the reality.
Number of seats in a year would not double just because the previous year no admissions were done. Those not admitted this year would have to compete with the new batch next year. The competition next year would be double if no admissions made this year.
What were his scores of January JEE. How he cannot handle it. If he has given in January attempt seriously then with couple of months revision everydaynfor 5 to 6 hours he could have given September easily. Please ensure other students do not impacted
This is just a journey not an end
Fully bakvas…..
Suicide is not the solution to anything ! The world around moves on . Irrespective of when the exams are held preparation is a must and those that are able to make it good will be winners ! But life has so many options , NEET and JEE are not the only goal posts !!
No one should ever get unduly dismayed , and upset over things
These are unprecedented times, and ample support must be given by families and teachers to their wards .
Is there any story writing competition going on or what? This article literally seems to be a bad fictional story because neither location nor name of parent’s mentioned or any other things that can authenticate this article.
STOP SPREADING RUMORS.
#bik gayi media
Is the opinion piece trying to justify suicide by shifting it to a change in schedule of the exam? Any aspirant knows that these extra months are for revision not for covering the syllabus. Also, do other years have zero suicides. Every year we hear these kinds of news. The problem begs a solution not some gloss over opinion piece which is driven by other motivations.
At the outset, sorry for the loss of the author but please do not misuse a tragedy
If the exams will not postponed these things will be happen in large numbers & also covid patients will also increase.WHO also said that in winter there is risk for youngsters due to covid .
If the exams will not postponed these things will be happen in large numbers & also covid patients will also increase.
I have just readed all the 9 comments . All the people are saying that there was lack of preparation.But let me tell u one thing that the process for preparation of jee exam is such a hard thing that the person end to suffer from deppression . It was a pure case of exam pressure only a aspirant can understand . So all the above people stop judging a person after its suicide. RIP VIKRAM.
My deepest condolence to you and your cousin’s family. Loosing a loved one is a pain not explainable. But with all due respect I would beg to disagree with you on the cause of his death. Placing the blame on just Government or supreme court is just a lame excuse. You also need to look at other students who have been preparing last 4 years (usually from class 9) would loose one academic year. What about their loss. You also need to look at the delay in conducting the exam might have other domino effects such as delay in admissions, delay in final exams. Also this will create more pressure on the students. Please note that the peer, family pressure also play a crucial rule. Did his parents council him. When was the last time you had a chat with him. Please dont cash on his death, dont try to use his victim card against your personal goals. I have my nephews and nieces who are eagerly waiting for this to over. Should I cry foul on it
Message to Print: I know you love to present yourself as liberal. At the end of the day, you are leftist and no matter what the government does you want your agenda to be proved
He couldn’t study because of lockdown? Woahhhhhhh he had to go outside and take care of sic covid paitients right?
While rest of the country was busy watching netflix, we Neet and JEE aspirants were studying our a*s*s off for this exam for 6 months. If he couldn’t handle the pressure, I am sorry, but he should have chosen something else to excell at. Do not blame the government which is looking out for the silent majority of the 10L people.
I am sorry to hear about your cousin’s death. I am also sorry that The Print thought it fit to publish this article. Every year students commit suicide due to various reasons, including pressure to excel. So what do we do about it? Let everyone study whatever he or she wants, pass everyone and then ensure a job? If the purpose of publishing this article was to put pressure on the SC or the government to keep on postponing the exams, then The Print should be honest and up-front about it in the 50 word editorial rather than go about it in this roundabout way.
You all people here doesnt know what it’s like to be in such a situation..only an aspirant or a student or parent of such students know their feelings…stop shouting around without knowing things what happening now..Dont mess with young Indians.
Fully twisted article
‘If you can’t handle the heat, get out the kitchen’. Why blame the exams when the mental capacity to prepare for exams are missing. Sorry, I empathize with your cousin’s family, but I do not agree with the drivel you’ve written. Why should crores of students waste an academic year, because some students are not able to fulfill their topper aspirations.
This has nothing to do with SC or Government, he could not deal with pressure. The exam was postponed , he had time to prepare still he did this. What would happen if it was scheduled normally??
Nice story.what was the proof
We are very sorry for your family’s loss. But what exactly are you trying to achieve with this article? Is this part of the eco-system’s plan to pressure the Govt to postpone exams and affect the futures of millions of other young people?
I know it’s tough to handle exam pressure but I am requesting to students who are depressed please don’t commit suicide because it really hurts your parents. I had failed two times but I am still alive because of my parents love. Never give up. Please
Yeah live life for parents…. that’s the Indian culture that’s why due to parental pressure students take engineering and then commit suicide as their parents are not happy….
If Indian parents loved their kids they would’ve never forced their kids…so don’t pull this ‘PARENTS LOVE DRAMA’
Your cousin Vikram should have looked for some other profession, other than engineering or IIT.
IITs, please remember, do not produce engineers. They produce bright young Indians who are intelligent, capable of very hard work, have the capacity to work consistently under pressure, have a tremendous amount of self-discipline and THEN opt for research, civil services and management.
Even those Indians who join the engineering colleges have these abilities in different measures.
If your cousin Vikram was not up to sustaining such pressure your family should have counselled him to do something else. Like do media studies, investigate Shakespeare or Jai Shankar Prasad, perhaps study chemistry or bio-physics.
Or, he could have looked for a career in becoming a good carpenter, a very good plumber or a shoemaker.
His suicide only wastes a life which could have done so well had it not been hung upon only taking the JEE.
No sympathy from me for Vikram but certainly, a lot of anger against his family for letting down a young life.
Dear father/mother/sister/cousin stop pestering young people. Tell them that other professions like that of a shoemaker or a gardner or a carpenter or an electrician are just as honourable, fruitful and respectable as that of an engineering student.
By the way, Modi or Nishank or Justice Mishra have nothing to do with any of this. So stop moaning about them.
I am sorry to differ with you mandate of IITs is to produce best engineers sir. Govt spend a considerable amount of taxpayers money on each IIT student. If they don’t produce engineers then it’s a chaos waste of taxpayers money.
I beg to differ with you sir, the mandate of IITs is to produce world class engineers. If IITs do anything other than that is a waste of taxpayers money as govt spends 5.2 lakhs on each student.
How can you be so rude. Somebody just lost their son. Do you know it’s not wasy to tell ur parents who have sacrificed everything for you that you are not prepared for the exam and want to pursue some other career. Ti me your words were too harsh. Please have some sensitivity. Have you lost all emotions
please do not talk about what career he should’ve chosen. just because he ‘couldn’t handle the pressure’ doesn’t mean he was any less capable of clearing the exams. covid-19 has created enough havoc in people’s lives. the constant uncertainty of the dates of the exam, fear of getting infected by the virus, fear of spreading the virus to your own family and neighbours is not something everyone deals with all the time. it is pretty clear that conducting the examination now isn’t the best decision that the govt has taken. rampant spread of the virus will begin, since SOPs are not followed in the country. transportation isn’t available to many. many are suffering from the after effects of the floods in their regions. the closest centres for a lot of students is 200-500 km away from where they live.
appearing for an exam like JEE has always been stressful for students, but living through such uncertain times and appearing for one of the toughest exams in the world is WAY more stressful.
so please, do not talk about how students should choose other career options just because of them not being able to handle stress.
Really you feel education ministers, our pm n our SC hs nthng to do with this matter! Your wrong! This tym of crisis really has caused soo many problems to ppl like me(poor middle class) and others, center’s have been flooded! Sop’s are proven failed everytime and still you feel the government had nthng to do with the matter which holds life of sooo many aspirants, their family, neighbour’s… You should have a concrete knowledge of ground reality before speaking. No offense but this tym its really crucial.
Parents are responsible to a great extent in making or breaking the child …. extremely sorry state of affairs !
I couldn’t have thought of a better response. Vikram generates NO sympathy thru his asinine acts. Hes a coward who couldn’t face life. Plain and Simple.
Lockdown was meant for revising what you have learnt in past two years, not to compensate for 2 years you were busy wasting.
How much were you and by whom were you paid to write this article?
On the top of this you want support for the rotten journalism.
This is an opinion piece… Not written by the print… They have just published it like 50 other media outlets
Why didnt i think about this
It wasn’t jee pressure… it’s lack of preparation
Are you serious right now?
Pandemic or no pandemic, its our education system along with unrealistic expectation that is the causes of tragedy !!!
That is his problem of not able to handle pressure.how could he could have written if it had happened in April as per original schedule
It will go better in April… social argument of postponding disturbed all student mentally.. hmlog ka mindset rhta h ki xaam iss date m hoga..so ek rythm rhta h preparation m.. after all we r student..ek hardwork k baad suddenly postponed ho jata h na too hm thk se relax or na prepare kr paate h.. literally frustrated..
What about lakhs of students who are ready to give the exams and bring a closure to studying endlessly ?
Sorry. It is not because of the exam pressure but he was not prepared to face the exam thinking that it will be postponed. It is his fault of not preparing and be ready to face the exam any time. Please dont blame the government or SC for his foolish act.
How low you will stoop? You at times breaks all limits. What’s the pressure on students? Is this last time,JEE will take place? Will it not come next year in Jan? If one is worthy then why to worry, anyway if exams are postponed further, one year anyway is going to be zero year. And remember Corona is here to stay. Vaccine is not in sight atleast for next 6 months. Sensational news sells but don’t do harm to students atleast
Fool
I agree, im sorry for your brother, but what had he been doing for the last two years, i got my exams postponed but i didnt make up my mind that i wont study as they’ll surely get postponed, even if they did later. Its lack of preparation. Also its been almost half a year and he had it in September, He seriously couldnt do anything in 6 months? Dude.. You just wasted all of your efforts and those of your family and teachers. And here you are to blame the government
Agreed
What was his percentile in jee phase 1 jan 2020??????
And who are you to decide what he was scared or not. Very easy for you to say that he was not prepared. So if you have not idea about a person please don’t habe the guts to comment.
And who are you to decide what he was scared or not. Very easy for you to say that he was not prepared. So if you have not idea about a person please don’t habe the guts to comment.