EDUCATORS in India are worried over an increasing figure - that of the rising suicide rate among adolescents.

Its main cause? The pressure to do well in school, said a Times of India (TOI) report.

And the pressure is not from teachers but from parents,the report added.

India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and recent studies suggest about 40 percent are adolescents.

At least 125 people aged 29 years or below are committing suicide every day and 51 per cent of the total suicide victims are graduates, college students or younger.

In several cases, students commit suicide after failing exams, according to local newspaper reports.

In Mumbai alone, 25 students have taken their lives since beginning of the year, leaving parents, teachers and officials struggling to understand the reason behind the deaths.

High marks, college admissions

Mr Mahesh Poddar is one such grieving parent as his daughter, Mini, committed suicide in 2001 when she was 15 years old.

She was distraught about college admissions and had just missed out on getting into the college of her choice.

Union human resource minister Kapil Sibal said that the sudden spike in suicides among students is a result of the growing parental pressures on the child to beat his peers, said TOI.

In many cases, the trigger appears to be academic pressure, said a report in CNN.

India's education system is based on rote learning, or memorisation, with a strong emphasis on scoring high marks.

Authorities are organising counselling sessions, said MrSanjay Kumar, education secretary of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai is located.

The suicides were a wake-up call for educators, said Mrs Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Vidyala, a government school in North Mumbai.

Though none of the recent suicide cases in the city involved students from her school, she is worried.

Recently, a student from her school ran away from home before exams.

She said: "As teachers, we have a lot of effect on the students, even more than parents have."

This article was first published in The New Paper.