What Kota, ‘12th Fail’ tell us about pressures on students

While everybody is busy looking at the big numbers in the interim Budget 2024-25, ably presented in by the ever-dependable finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, quite another statistic is raising an alarm across India. Kota witnessed the tragic death of 27 students last year, followed by three more within two weeks this year. The suicides have shaken up the system and opened our eyes to the harsh expectations and intolerable pressure generated while competing fiercely to clear exams like JEE, NEET and UPSC. Though the odds are stacked against them, lakhs of students invest time, effort and money to prep for such exams. Unable to realise their impossible dreams, some succumb to the pressure. “Yahi last option hai,” said the heart-rending note left by one of them. How and when did marks become more important than life? !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r ‘12th Fail’, a movie that won multiple Filmfare awards recently, goes a long way in helping us understand the mindset of millions of hopefuls who are ready to beg, borrow, steal, starve to cross that magic UPSC line in the hope that it will save them from a life of drudgery and offer respectability, acceptance, even high honour. The biographical drama chronicles the trauma and eventual triumph of one such poverty-stricken student who decides to crack the exam, no matter what. It is an authentic and passionate narrative — as astonishing as it is heart-breaking. Actor Vikrant Massey plays the role of real-life IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma whose awe-inspiring determination inspired a book which, in turn was converted into a deeply moving film by writer, director, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The story of Sharma, son of an honest clerk in dacoit-infested Chambal, tackled multiple issues and glaring inequities buried deep in our education/social system. Casual cheating during exams, for example. The ultimate dream for lakhs of students who sign up for punishing coaching classes and slog for years in order to qualify for the rigorous UPSC exams is exposed for what it is — a bloody scam. There is much more than an exam at stake for the hero of the film, raised in a caste-ridden village controlled by corrupt cops and heartless netas. The vividly etched portrait of a character named Gauri Bhaiya, a failed UPSC candidate who mentors the hero, is a compelling track, devoid of cynicism and angst. ‘Restart’ is the motto at his shabby set-up, where he urges his motley group to stay the course, and work with laser-like focus on getting through.It’s difficult to decode the ravenous hunger of students who give up so much to achieve their ambition. And to think just 180 IAS officers are selected out of the 10 lakh who appear for the exam. But once an individual gets in, well then, after that there’s no looking back. An IAS officer’s salary after putting in ten long years is a far-from-princely 12 lakh per annum but the power he or she wields is hard to quantify. The mighty wheels of government keep turning thanks to UPSC officers who know the game of governance far more intimately than the politicians they report to.It is not just the money that attracts so many students to compete in an overcrowded field, it is also the chance to don the vardi (uniform) of an IPS officer (Sharma’s story). Students over-extend themselves as they sweat it out, sleep-deprived, hungry and lonely, studying for 16 to 18 hours a day with a single-mindedness that often comes with a deadly price tag. Coaching class culture is claiming too many young lives by demanding far more than the intellectual and emotional capacity of the oppressed candidates. And just replacing fans in student hostels or installing nets in balconies is not going to address the mental health crisis or the scarcity of quality institutions that results in the mad scramble to get in.We need to tackle the disease and not just the symptoms. It’s time to not just restart, but rethink. What can possibly be more valuable than a precious life abruptly cut short only because academic failure and shame seem worse than death?