Opinion: Why a Hyderabad girl killed herself over school fees

“Sorry Mom,” wrote a student, Sai Deepthi of class 9 in Hyderabad and hanged herself to death. She was led to take this drastic step after her school called her out from the class and did not allow her to write the exams due to non-payment of school fees.

Most of us would feel sorry for her and for her parents but what would we do beyond feeling sorry? At best, we will give her a few more columns like the present one and after that reduce her to another statistic – Suicide # 4 – just like we reduced the other three suicides before hers. What beyond this?

The Principal and teachers declared ‘responsible’ for abetting her suicide have been put behind bars and will, thankfully, soon come out on bail. But the owners of the school, the ones who actually drove the staff towards such actions are not even brought under scrutiny. The government of Telangana which rode to power driving the promise of providing free education from KG to PG is not even questioned. What, if anything, has it done about the past suicides in the state is not even asked. That a person no less than the Chief Justice of India (in 2016) Justice TS Thakur, in a case in Supreme Court, castigated the government for, possibly, working in connivance with the schools is not even highlighted!

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Parents in Hyderabad have been fighting for almost 10 years now. Have lodged multiple complaints, court cases, organised protests and several of their campaigns have gone viral on social media also. Yet, the Government of Telangana failed to act against any school. Disturbed by this, the parents’ association in Hyderabad conducted its own investigation and meticulously documented how schools are siphoning off crores of rupees to shell companies in tax havens abroad like the British Virgin Islands. The press on its part documented how Hyderabad has become the costliest city in India for school education. Despite all this, there is no action against any school till date. Is it any wonder then that suicides related to school fees started from and are increasing in frequency in the state of Telangana.

A suicide related to school fees was earlier reported from Ghaziabad in UP as well. But why should that be a concern to us as a nation? After all, it is ‘just a few suicides’ in ‘just two’ states! Moreover, there seems to be no ‘Dalit angle’ involved, no ‘religion under attack’ and certainly no cow to bull about. Why would this death occupy prime time news space? Why would it disturb our tolerant or intolerant citizens? How is it relevant to us that a life was lost due to delay in payment of a few hundred rupees as school fees in a nation that guarantees all its children the RIGHT TO FREE EDUCATION.

That we are unable to provide free education is a fact that, I assume, hardly disturbs anyone. But that basic education has become so unaffordable that students and parents have started committing suicide, is a fact which disturbs no one – is a fact, that I find very difficult to digest.

As per a survey done by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India), people in India are afraid to get married and have children because of the increasing cost of school education. Sadly, increasing school-fees as one of the top means of birth control is no longer a joke confined to WhatsApp but a ground reality of India today.

One would not expect politicians to be bothered about such ‘mundane’ things but what about others? Why would our intellectuals, celebrity journalists and ‘champions’ of the poor not be bothered about it? Perhaps they are too occupied with more critical issues like the brand of jacket that Rahul Gandhi wore and with what some looney in some corner of India has to say about some film.

I wonder why, indeed, would our courts, the conscience keepers of our nation, not take cognisance of this issue and pass strict directions for correction to the government? Unfortunately, they seem too busy fighting amongst themselves and dealing with other issues of grave national importance like the height of ‘Dahi-Haandi’.

The problem related to school fees, even if acknowledged, is often belittled as the problem confined to a ‘limited’ number of the ‘International’ schools and one which primarily concerns a whining group of ‘rich’ parents who want “5-Star facilities for their children at 1-Star rates.” That the parents select the ‘star’ of the school as per their affordability but the constant fee increase makes even a 1-star school seem like a 5-star hotel is beside the point.

The main aspect which everyone ignores is that the suicides have come not from the so-called ‘rich’ or from the so-called ‘international’ schools but from the ‘low fee schools’ attended by families from the extremely low-income groups. The fees charged by the school of Sai Deepthi, I am told, is only Rs. 800 per month. Herein lies the problem of increasing school fees – for the middle class it could be a question of taking a holiday or not, or perhaps going out for a dinner or not but for the poor it’s a question of living or not!

High time that this fact is acknowledged for what it is and acted upon in the best interest of the nation and its future.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)