The board results were out in Kashmir. Class 10 and Class 12. Numbers printed neatly on a sheet of paper. For some homes, there was celebration. For many, there was silence. And for a few, there was unbearable pressure. This is the part we rarely talk about.

Every year, after results, counselors and doctors hear the same stories. A child locking himself in a room. A teenager refusing food. A student crying through the night, terrified to face parents. In some tragic cases, the pressure turns fatal. Self-harm. Suicide attempts. Young lives ending because a percentage did not meet expectations.

Let us pause here. No exam result should carry the power to take a life. Yet we keep pushing children to the wall. Quietly. Repeatedly. Systematically. The pressure does not always come through shouting. Sometimes it comes through disappointment. Through silence. Through comparison. “Your cousin scored more.” “We expected better.” “What will people say?” “You took studies casually”….blah blah.

Children hear these words........

© Greater Kashmir