- Education System
Ok, before you lash out on me, I’m not blaming the whole education system of the country. I’m just pointing out some aspects of the education system that result in mental stress in the youth.
The reservation system: The reservation system in India depends upon the cast of the people. According to the reservation system, 50% of quota in government jobs and education will be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). This means that a student from the general category will have to work twice as hard to get into the same college or company as a student from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) or the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) categories. Which results in a lot of mental stress for students from the general category.
Orthodox academic beliefs: Almost all schools in India focus on getting the best possible “success rate” (so-called) by making an impression on the students that marks and academic scores are everything and you can’t achieve anything in life if you’re not good in studies. This creates a sense of fear in the students which makes them work very hard. This results in immense mental stress from a very young age. A school is a place where a child gets to find his/her passion and a path in life. What other choices would a kid have if you’ll force him to believe that the only way of being successful is through good marks? This is one of the biggest reasons why mental stress starts at a very young age in Indian youth.
- Parents Forcing Their Kids To Excel In Studies
The sad truth about the mentality of most of the Indian parents is “My son/daughter will be an engineer/doctor/lawyer/etc.”. In simple words, deciding their kid’s future by themselves, leaving the kid with no choice but to follow their parents’ dreams. I’m not implying that parents are evil, I just want to say that parents need to understand that marks and a high paying job are not everything. They do not guarantee the happiness and self-satisfaction of your child.
Parents need to learn how to support their kids in whatever field they want to pursue. Mental stress in youth almost always starts at home and it’s the parents’ duty to prevent it from happening. Again, not blaming anyone, I just want to get my point across that parents should support their kids in whatever field they want to choose. There’s a reason why movies like ‘Taare Zameen Par’ and ‘3 Idiots’ are made; to save the youth from mental stress.
- Highly Competitive and Harsh Working Environment
As soon as a student completes his/her graduation, it’s time for finding a job and earning well. Again, even after your graduation, nobody cares about happiness.
Recruiting Criteria: The first thing an HR of a company looks at is your mark sheet, without even hearing a single word from your mouth, you’ll be pre-judged by your marks. A person with 98% marks will be selected after a very short 1-2 minute round, however, a person with 65% marks will be thoroughly tested for his skills an knowledge. This creates a lot of mental stress for the people who scored less and are applying for the job, both because of the pressure from society and family.
Hard Workers Will Be Paid More: In simple words, the amount of work you’ll do or the number of hours you’ll spend working will decide your growth in the company. Most of the private companies in India follow this trend which forces a normal working person to work extra hard just to compete with the people who have already been working day and night, 12 to 14 hours a day for the company. This again results in a lot of mental stress, especially in youngsters who are new to the company and know nothing about the nature of a job and their rights as an employee. The seniors tend to pass on a considerable amount of their work to the freshers. It’s not even the seniors’ fault, as they also have more work than a single person could handle. This is because the owner of a company will always try to find ways to get most of the work done without spending extra amount. This is the reason why most of the youngsters are forced to quit their jobs due to the immense stress involved.
Conclusion
These were the main reasons for mental stress in Indian youth. Now, as you can tell, all of the points are connected to each other somehow. If parents and school won’t force the kids to aim for only good marks, the kids would have a lot of other choices to choose from. Resulting in youngsters pursuing the fields they are interested in and the selection of only those people who are perfect for a job. This would help in reducing a lot of stress in today’s youth. Again, it’s just a suggestion, implication totally depends upon the people who intentionally or unintentionally give birth to this stress.
Link To Article: https://youth-journal.org/why-indian-youth-is-going-through-so-much-of-mental-stress
