A 14-year-old girl’s death in Kerala was caused by a scarcity of access to online learning. The grotesqueness of this statement is very telling of how little the Indian education system cares for its children’s well-being — especially once they are marginalized.

She was a bright student throughout her school years. Her father, a daily-wage worker couldn't ensure access to a T.V. for her, which meant she would miss out on online classes for an indefinite time. Her fear of missing out on important classes led to her dying by suicide, and she or he left behind a note that said “I am leaving.”

Indian institutions and society both function as if merit is that the default setting for tactics during which we will mark student achievements. But achieving access to an equivalent standard of education for all still remains far, much more important. there's no thanks to judge merit when most of the scholars within the Indian education system aren't on equal footing. The deceased girl had bagged the Ayyankali scholarship — a Kerala government grant of Rs.4500 given to talented students from marginalized castes. What the govt should have also done is to form sure all schoolgoing children had access to online education because it opened virtual classes amid the pandemic.

Rohith Vemula’s suicide in 2017 was caused by a loss of his Ph.D. fellowship stipend, because he dared to talk up against mistreatment under the banner of the Ambedkar Students’ Association. He couldn’t manage his expenses after the loss of his stipend money, and hostel room. In his final note, he wrote, “Maybe i used to be wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. wanting to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself may be a curse. My birth is my casualty . I can never get over my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.”