Adolescence (भारत में)

This week, I came across an intriguing series titled "adolescence" . full of drama and excellent subject matter that made me think about the plight of young “adolescent" India.

India has 253 million adolescents, the largest in the world, teeming with potential energy. One might believe this generation stands on the cusp of greatness, poised to lead India into a luminous future.

And yet, the harshness of reality intervenes: India’s adolescents are dying in tens of thousands, not through war or famine, but through a systematic betrayal perpetrated by social media, unhelpful educational institutions, and an insidious consumerist culture.

Let me share why I am saying so…

between 1995 and 2021, 134,735 adolescents aged 10–19 years died by suicide,  an average of over 5,180 per year.

In 2021 alone, 10,730 adolescents under 18 ended their own lives — marking a 42% increase compared to the year 2000.

Suicides are rising not only among 15–19-year-olds but also among younger adolescents under 15, a group often masked in India's broad statistical classifications.

Each number hides a life extinguished often by hands too young to have even understood the depths of despair.

The Silent Executioner

Social media is no mere distraction. It is a force that actively reshapes adolescent mental landscapes.

According to a 2022 Indian Journal of Psychiatry, adolescents spending over three hours daily on social media were twice as likely to exhibit clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression.

A shocking 60% of adolescents reported feeling "inadequate" about their bodies after scrolling through curated online content.

And the methods of death bear out the psychological impact:

Hanging constituted 27.87% of child suicides below 14 in 2013

Poisoning made up 17.15%, reflecting impulsive acts catalysed by emotional distress.

Social media is not merely a window. It is a mirror, distorting self-perception until the reflection becomes unbearable.

Glamourisation of Violence

Yet the issue runs deeper.

In the shimmering world of social media, violence itself is now glamourised, aestheticised, and incentivised.

A 2023 Child Rights and You (CRY) study found that 37% of urban adolescents (aged 12–18) had engaged with online content showcasing stylised violence from street fights set to catchy music to weapon displays glorified as marks of heroism.

Platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and even indigenous apps like Moj and Josh reward such content through algorithmic amplification, encouraging adolescents to seek validation through violent acts.

NCRB data shows a 22% increase in serious juvenile crimes (murder, rape, grievous assault) between 2018 and 2021 among 16–18-year-olds.

A 2022 TISS study noted a shift: where once juvenile crime was poverty-driven, now it emerges from lower-middle and middle-class adolescents, influenced by glamourised violence online.

Delhi Police reported a 47% rise in weapon seizures involving adolescents in 2022, often inspired by Instagram Reels and Snapchat trends.

viral "challenges" like the Blue Whale, the Pass-Out Challenge, the Choking Game, etc. have claimed dozens of adolescent lives between 2017 and 2022.

The digital arena has turned into a gladiatorial pit, Professor, where survival and self-worth are measured not by resilience, but by spectacle.

Schools and Colleges-Colluding in the Collapse

schools and colleges are pillars meant to support youth and are complicit through neglect and exploitation.

A 2024 BMC Psychiatry review links 22.85% of adolescent suicides directly to academic pressure.

The coaching industry, ballooning to ₹58,088 crore (about £5.3 billion) by 2023, thrives by monetising fear and desperation. In Kota alone, 15 students took their lives in 2023, a 66% increase over 2022, despite so-called mental health initiatives.

Colleges, too, fail their charges:

Only 12% of Indian higher education institutions have licensed mental health counselors (AISHE 2021–22).

70% of college students report moderate to severe stress.

Alarmingly, the proportion of engineering students citing "fear of unemployment" as a major stressor rose from 46% in 2017 to 64% in 2022.

They arrive at the gates of higher education battered and bruised, only to find no balm within.

Consumerism: Feeding the Fire

The adolescent is not merely pressured to succeed academically but also to consume and display.

In 2023, India's adolescent retail market crossed ₹4 lakh crore (£36.5 billion), growing at 9% annually. Families now allocate 18% of discretionary spending towards adolescent consumption demands, compared to 11% in 2005.

Among economically disadvantaged adolescents, this unattainable consumerism generates unique psychosocial strains, contributing to 8.75% of suicides linked to economic distress.

The marketplace, then, does not merely sell products; it sells inadequacy, dissatisfaction, and dreams just out of reach.

Regional Inequities: 

Not all adolescents suffer equally.

Maharashtra alone reported 1,230 student suicides in 2021 — the highest in the country.

Southern states, though housing only 21% of India's adolescent population, accounted for 29% of student suicides.

 the rise in female adolescent suicides is up 7% between 2020 and 2022 reveals the compounded burdens of gender-based violence, academic pressure, and domestic confinement.

Crime, Violence, and the Erosion of Empathy

Juvenile crime patterns mirror the psychological and moral decay:

Between 2002 and 2012, juvenile murder cases surged 87%; minor rape cases surged 143%.

In 2012, among minors charged with serious crimes:

• 66.6% were aged 16–18,
• 30.9% aged 12–16,
• 2.5% were only 7–12 years old.

repeated exposure to online violence breeds desensitisation, anxiety, and erosion of reality testing, according to a 2022 Indian Psychiatric Society survey where 14% of aggressive adolescents cited social media inspiration as a key motivator.

The State’s Response

Government efforts, though visible, barely scratch the surface:

• The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 decriminalised suicide attempts but remains poorly implemented.
• The Manodarpan initiative reached only 1.2 million adolescents by 2022 — a negligible 0.47% of the adolescent population.
• Only 11 states have operationalised adolescent mental health policies.
• Only 7% of schools incorporate critical media literacy (NCERT Review, 2023), and a paltry 18% of families use parental controls (IAMAI 2023).
• Regulation remains porous, enforcement weak, and education an afterthought.

India’s adolescents stand at a perilous crossroads.

• Social media glorifies violence.
• Schools impose unbearable pressure.
• Colleges offer false promises.
• Consumerism breeds endless hunger.

Without systemic reform, encompassing digital ethics, educational restructuring, psychological safety nets, and a fundamental recalibration of societal values this demographic dividend will wither into a demographic catastrophe.

Every suicide, every act of self-harm, every instance of adolescent rage is not merely a personal tragedy. It is an indictment of a society that has turned its back on its own future.

The question, is brutally simple:

Will we continue to watch silently? Or will we dare to intervene before the silence becomes permanent?