You might want to go out in the open air once again where you find the customary hustle and bustle of your city but some of us may actually be basking in the comfort of lockdown.
“It’s fine socializing, but it’s too much, and the pandemic has been a forced respite. It’s a guilt-free release from the pressures of some work and social and family obligations,” says Psychiatrist Gail Saltz on why some people are loving the lockdown.
When the release from this ceases, it will forge an atmosphere of anxiety and fear of going back to the identical routine.
And the same transpired in China, post lockdown. The student suicide rate surged with the reopening of schools in numerous parts of the country. Some students are trying to tackle the alteration in the routine while others are fussing over how the tumult will affect their academic performance, counsellors, teachers, and schools say.
“There have been some heartbreaking incidents as schools reopened,” Yan Wu, vice mayor of the southern city of Zhuhai, said at China’s annual parliamentary meeting last month.
“This highlights the importance and urgency of promoting mental health development in young students,” he said.
In one Shanghai region, there have been 14 suicides by primary and secondary school students – more than annual numbers for the last three years, Li Guohua, deputy mayor of Shanghai’s Pudong New Area district, told financial magazine Caixin in May.
The heightened anxiety in teenagers has become a matter of concern for the central government. It has also directed to the unprecedented measures by institutions and regional government to emphasise on student mental health.
Suicide is the prime cause of death among Chinese youth, according to China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Every year, roughly 250,000 people commit suicide in China, while another two million try to.
What raises a big question is how the Indian government will tackle the post lockdown repercussions. With the cases on the rise crossing 3 lakh, the schools have been closed since March and may persist closure till August. The lengthy break may lead to a surge of anxiety and depression among teenagers, with most of them already stressed with their unfinished examinations.
On a normal year, every hour one student dies by suicide in India, with about 28 such suicides reported every day, according to data assembled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB data exhibits that 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018, an increase from 9,905 in 2017, and 9,478 in 2016.
Mental Health is one such thing which remains insignificant in India even today. The psychological well being of a student is one such criterion which doesn’t wield much weightage.
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