Parental pressure
It starts early. Parents want their children to do well in life, so they fill their days with extra tuition, sports classes, music lessons, scheduled social events. When exam time comes round, they threaten severe consequences in case of low grades. And repeating a year of school? Unforgiveable.
India is a conservative society, and most families want their children to have conventional careers – as engineers, lawyers, or software developers – rather than encouraging them to pursue a love of literature or acting, for example. Children are taught to value academic success from a young age. It’s no country for dreamers.
This is the everyday routine of an ordinary boy in the ninth grade, Chirag: "I have to rush for tuition as soon as I return from school. Then I do my homework. As soon as I finish my homework I have to get ready for the dance classes. Next year, I will take my board exams for standard ten. Both teachers and parents want me to perform exceptionally and this scares me about my future."
This has become completely normal. In a few years, Chirag might well be another student at one of the crammer colleges, studying through the night in the hope of getting a place at an IIT. It comes at the cost of his childhood.