The Kids Aren’t Alright

The exultation over Kerala’s strong performance in the CBSE examinations has been tempered by the revelation that 66 school-age children have committed suicide since the lockdown (March 25). On July 9, CM Pinarayi Vijayan released the startling statistics compiled by the State Crime Records Bureau. While not explicitly attributing the deaths—mostly in the 12-18 age bracket—to the lockdown, he suggested that it might have exacerbated underlying problems such as household discord, parental pressure and substance abuse. He has instituted a fact-finding committee.

Over the following week, initiatives to address the mental wellbeing of children have been rolled out. ‘Chiri’ (Smile), the CM’s tele-counselling initiative, however, has divided experts. The women and child development department has also launched a phone-counselling programme and roped in anganwadi and ASHA workers. The Kerala police have brought out many awareness and intervention campaigns as well.

In June, Devika B., 15, a Dalit student in Malappuram—which registered the highest number of deaths—died by suicide after not being able to attend online classes. This sparked debates on socio-economic exclusion and disparities in access to learning. Her death was the impetus for the State Mental Health Programme to extend its psychosocial-support project for quarantined COVID-19 patients and frontline healthcare workers, ‘Ottakkalla, Oppam Undu’ (You are not alone, we are with you), to children. The outreach effort has resulted in school counsellors making over a lakh phone calls to students. According to the government, 180 cases (as of July 18) have been reported for intervention. Some 14,518 children have received counselling.

“The multi-level initiative has been going on since June 25 to provide mental support for Grade 10 and 12 students before the announcement of the SSLC exam results,” says Dr. P.S. Kiran, state nodal officer for mental health. “This has been widened to cover all school-going students now.” He added that studies on the impact of the lockdown’s isolating effects on child mental wellbeing were underway. The dashboard has recorded nearly 8,000 cases of stress and anxiety and 450 reports of behavioural issues. There are 42 recorded cases of depression and 71 incidences of substance abuse. Over 3,000 cases have been attributed to “other issues”, including social media use.

But such top-down approaches can only go so far, says Surya L., a school teacher in Ernakulam who has seen children break down in tears during classes. “Cut off from friends and stress-relief avenues like sports, children are in a vulnerable frame of mind. The onus is on parents and teachers to make an extra effort,” she says. 

By Siddharth Premkumar in Trivandrum