Kumar Govind
M. Tech. IIT Delhi
Director CARAWIN
In every day or two we get to read in the newspapers about suicides of students due to depression or exam pressure. Since, it is one of the regular news we get to see, most of the people seem to ignore it. This raises questions, “Who is responsible for these suicides?”, “Are we doing enough to stop these suicides?”, “What forced those tender minds to take such a bold and scary step?” According to a report by National Crime Records Bureau, Every hour one student commits suicide in India.
It is an Indian mindset to pressurise the child to study or choose a stream through anecdotal and empirical evidence. Most of the parents fail to realise the potential and dreams of their own child. A variety of factors are responsible for these like, the increasing gap between generations, limitations of expression of feelings and thoughts to social media, lack of awareness and others. This results in a feeling of depression, inferiority and guilt for not being able to fulfil expectation of parents amongst the students.
In the words of Mr. Kumar Govind, the Director of CARAWIN Pvt. Limited – a Career Assessment and Counselling Company, “An indecisive career has been the biggest pain point for millions of students and parents. Career decisions in most households are largely driven or influenced by parents, relatives, and teachers. Today, however, with increasing career options, high competition, and increasing complexity, parents and students face a huge challenge when it comes to finalizing and pursuing a career.”
According to Mr. Govind, the only key to solve this problem is Awareness and Career Assessment & Career Counselling. Out of more than 3000 career options available, our students are only aware of a maximum of 10-15 options. Moreover, there is a lack of preparedness in the student community. If asked about a B Plan, in case they do not qualify for the particular competition, most of the students are confused / blank. Confidence is good but overconfidence is the sign of destruction. It is a harsh reality that amongst lakhs of students appearing for JEE only a few thousands are selected for IITs and NITs. Others have to get content by taking admission in Private Colleges which not only charge a huge amount as a fee but also do not assure a good placement offer. At the end, we see a huge pool of unemployed youth struggling to earn their bread and butter. This is where Career Assessment and Career Counselling plays a major role. It helps the student to find his/her area of strength and be confident towards his/her Career Goals.
In the words of Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Similarly, every student has a different level of potential and talent and must be given a fair chance of pursuing a career of his/her interest and passion, given guidance by a Career expert in the domain and must not be judged every single time. It is only then that we would be able to create an effective human resource for the country and reduce unemployment.
