NHRC seeks reports on students' suicide from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

HYDERABAD: Expressing concern over students committing suicide, the National Human Rights Commission in Delhi has recently directed the chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to submit, within four weeks, the action-taken report on student suicides that took place in both the states in the last few years. The commission gave this direction on a complaint lodged by advocate K Sravan Kumar that students were resorting to suicide due to the pressure exerted by the teaching staff of private colleges.

Referring to various telecasts and newspaper clippings on the incidents of student suicides in both the Telugu-speaking states, Sravan Kumar pointed out that private colleges had been conducting classes throughout the day starting early in the morning till late in the night i.e. from 5 am to 10 pm and that was resulting in a lot of psychological pressure building up on the students. Besides, the colleges had been conducting weekly tests and, based on their performance, the students were being segregated into various sections.

Such a practice was leading to development of inferiority complex in students performing poorly and forcing them to commit suicide. In fact, the teaching staff, particularly of private corporate colleges, were not trained and they were adopting unscientific teaching methods, he alleged.

The petitioner told the commission that there was no proper response from the ministry of human resource and the women & child welfare department to his complaint on the issue. Though the state governments (AP and Telangana) were aware of the problem they were not taking stringent action against those responsible for incidents.

Stating that student suicides were taking place on every alternate day, the petitioner requested the NHRC to send a team to both the states to conduct an inquiry into the issue and find remedies in the interest of the student community.