Depressed youth: LCWU forms body to avert student suicides

VC says rooftops of all buildings on the campus had been made inaccessible to students.

LAHORE:

The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) has set up a Student Council and Human Rights Society that will seek to improve the atmosphere on campus and help avert any potential suicides.

Addressing a press conference at the LCWU on Thursday, Vice Chancellor Dr Sabiha Mansoor voiced concern about recent suicide incidents by school students. She said the new body would consist of students and faculty and they would address student concerns. “The society has been established to ensure a friendly atmosphere on campus,” she said.

Dr Mansoor said that the rooftops of all buildings on the campus had been made inaccessible to students “so they may not harm themselves”. She said that the security system had been updated on the campus as well.

The vice chancellor said that young people today were under many pressures and lamented that “childhood is no longer a joyful experience”. She said, “Exam-related stress, peer pressure, family issues and changes in social attitudes are the common reasons behind suicides. Severe competition, extreme comparisons and fierce expectations from parents, teachers, family and friends has created an enormous amount of pressure on these young kids. Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, depression, loneliness and worthlessness result in such situations where the student feels that nothing can get better and that no one can help them.”

She said that incidents of student suicide were on the rise in Pakistan and the blame in many cases lay with the education system and competitive exams, teachers, admission processes or parental pressures.

LCWU Registrar Riffat Saqlain and Dean Dr Kousar Jamal Cheema were also at the press conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2012.