Bhopal: The Catholic Church in a central Indian state plans to set up a crisis intervention cell to help students suffering from academic stress.
The move comes in the wake of a sudden rise in suicides among school going children in Madhya Pradesh during the past couple of months.
Father Maria Stephen, Public Relations Officer of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, says the situation is “precarious” but the Church can offer effective help to the stressed students.
“We have trained priests and nuns who can give counseling to the distressed students and help save them from taking any extreme step,” the priest told Matters India on March 11.
The student suicides have put pressure on the state government. According to media reports around two dozen school children committed suicide in the state in the past one year.
State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has cautioned parents and school managements not to exert pressure on children for better results. He also has warned that putting pressure on students would be considered a crime.
Simultaneously, Chouhan also announced setting up of a committee comprising legislators from the ruling and the opposition to study the growing trend of student suicides.
The committee, he said, would interact with experts from across the globe to find ways to save students from taking extreme steps like suicides.
“193 students committed suicide in the state in 2012 and the number rose to 218 in 2013 and 223 in 2014,” said Minister of State for School Education Deepak Joshi in the state Assembly.
The minister also issued order for extending the counseling helpline time from 12 hours to 16 hours to help stressed students. The Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) provides helpline service to help distressed students.
Fr Stephen said the Church in Madhya Pradesh is collecting contact details of priests and nuns skilled in counseling to publish their list through various forms of media so that children can take advantage of their expertise.
The state PRO office will function as a nodal agency initially until district wise crisis management cells become active, he explains. They will start with Bhopal archdiocese and later extend it to other dioceses in the state.
Church is one of the leading partners in the state when it comes to school education.
Roy Thomas, a counselor, blams the “high expectations from the families” as the root cause for stress in the students. “Besides this change of life style including food habits, excessive use of social media, mobile addiction etc too add further burden on the children” he told Matters India.
According to him, children feel the worst when compared with their peer group members who do better. Instead of belittling them, parents and teachers should help them identify their abilities and encourage them to do what they capable of doing, Thomas added.
He cited the case of two children who did badly in studies. They were getting tuitions from different teachers for same subject which did not match with the methodology followed in their schools and thus, they faired baldy in exams. “When I suggested their parents to stop their tuitions, they gradually improved in their studies and doing well now,” Thomas explained.
“The parents, therefore, should not force their ideas on their children but allow them to discover themselves. This will keep the children stress free and extreme steps like suicides can be avoided,” he added.