Youth in Distress

A Class X student commits suicide in Delhi over alleged harassment from teachers. A first-year student kills himself in Mumbai after presumably being beaten up for not speaking Marathi in the train. This is the unfortunate story of two young boys who took their lives on the very same day in two different cities in the country. The Hindi-Marathi language row and the incorrigible behaviour of the school teachers are both condemnable. But let’s also ponder the growing and worrisome issue of mental health among the younger generation.

Our predecessors were not martyrs or superhumans, but they sure were sturdy. Comparatively, if you’re a parent, guardian, or educator today, you can’t disregard the emotional fragility of the young mind. Our older generations withstood wars, famines, droughts, the freedom struggle, and a bloody partition. Our parents survived economic highs and lows, communal riots, and the onslaught of the digital age. Many of our millennial childhoods had ugly shades where corporal punishment, sexual abuse and harassment, and roadside heckling were par for the course. We also grew up hearing or experiencing firsthand instances of extreme ragging. It was physical and mental torture; the kind of ignominy that broke the bodies and souls of young students. There would be cautionary tales emanating from medical and engineering colleges that scared and haunted us. As terrible and unfair as the world seemed, generations survived the sticks and stones, words, and humiliation. A few gave up, but most soldiered on. Can we say the same for younger folk today? Fed on instant gratification and validation, along with an overdose of social media, Indian youth are not made of the stronger stuff of yore, and their waning mental health is growing to be a matter of concern.

Across generations, the world has changed, but it has not gotten kinder; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Bullying and harassment wear sophisticated garb now. The digital world has unleashed faceless trolls who body-shame, objectify, or throw canards. Lives are hard, jobs are few, and the cost of living is high. Between the hustle and bustle of life, unbreathable air, cacophonous traffic, and the daily rigmarole, there is also the glitz, glamour, and opulence of the rich, beautiful, and fit. Gullible minds consume these stories of success and build in their minds a perception of happiness and accomplishment. These life goals may be pretentious, unreal or even fake, but to the impressionable mind, they denote the absolute epitome of a triumphant life. Nothing short of realising it can appease them; any obstacle that comes in the way will make life seem catatonic.

Even if life is a bed of roses, it comes with thorns. The younger generation has to be equipped to pick them out. And that requires an enduring disposition. But youth today are constantly surrounded by things that weaken rather than strengthen them. A colleague was telling me the other day that today’s youngsters eat clean and are more conscious about everything that they do. Recent news stories also point towards a trend where, instead of the pub-loving, almost-alcoholic millennials of my generation, Gen Z and Alpha prefer veganism and a nicely brewed cup of expensive coffee. They are living more mindfully today than the previous generations, not only because they want to but also because they know they have no choice. Previous generations have plundered the planet, reaped profits, and killed the environment. For future generations to sustain, the current ones have to pick up the cudgels of social and climate reform. More power to the younger lot, but are they mentally and emotionally strong? This worries me.

One of the leading causes of death among young Indians between 15 and 29 years of age is suicide. As of 2021, our suicide rate was 12.6 per cent for every 1 lakh people; a notably higher number than the global average of 9.2. As per news reports citing numbers from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), over 13,000 students committed suicide also in the same year; 2,000 of which were connected to poor performance in examinations. Some experts are going so far as to call youth suicide a public health crisis.

It’s a positive development that more people today are speaking openly about mental health. As employers, we are forced to accept and acknowledge that mental health is essential. We strive to promote work-life balance at home and at work. Individuals, too, are more frank about talking about anxiety and depression today. Two decades ago, if we went to our bosses crying about mental health, we would have been called weak and unfit for the job. I’m glad the world is evolving to recognise the important aspect of human health. But isn’t it also becoming all too common? Almost everyone is suffering from some form of mental ill-health or another. And I’m not speaking of the medically diagnosed mental illnesses that require medical intervention and psychological support. I just feel, and this can be an unpopular opinion, that we are not bringing up our youth to be resilient. Between wanting a Utopian concept of perpetual stress-free work and calling every single heart flutter a big calamity, we are nurturing a generation that may be tough on the outside but mushy inside. By giving our youth no challenges to overcome, by allowing mindless social media to poison their minds, by not introducing them to religiosity or spirituality early on in life to lean on, we are mollycoddling them, we are harming them.

Yes, be vulnerable, speak candidly of all your troubles, but at the end of it, let’s teach our youth also of courage and determination. Give them the confidence to complain about bullying, not succumb to it. They must learn kindness, not just towards the person on the road but also towards themselves. The brain is a muscle that must be trained to overcome hardships in life. ‘We shall overcome’, ‘this too shall pass’, ‘daar ke aage jeet hain’ (there is victory ahead of fear) — these lessons are as important as it is to be emotionally vulnerable. Otherwise, we will keep losing bright young kids who should have their whole lives in front of them to fall, rise, learn, unlearn — and most importantly, to thrive.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is an author and media entrepreneur