Promising Indian teen swimmer kills self

She was a state-level swimmer who won several medals and honours, and dreamt of becoming the world’s best. Who knew this champ’s bright future would be destroyed by the Indian education system’s obsession with high grades, and drive her to commit suicide?

Sixteen-year old Saira Sirohi, from Ghaziabad, a neinghbouring to the Indian national capital New Delhi, was the kid every parent would wish for. And yet, academic pressure got her in the worst possible manner. Of course, exams were more important than her dream to represent India in the Olympics.

According to a report in MensXP, Sunday evening, Saira Sirohi drank a glass of milk and retired to her room. She played a game on her mobile phone for a while as her younger sister fell asleep next to her. Very early next morning, Saira’s father woke up to his younger daughter shrieking in her room.

 "At 1.30 am, my younger daughter started crying loudly. I thought someone had entered the house and rushed to their room. But I couldn't open the door easily though it had not been bolted from inside. When I managed to push it open, I found Saira had hanged herself from the grille above the door. I brought her down and put her on the bed but she was cold and stiff," Jaideep Sirohi, Saira’s father recalled.

Saira had hung herself to death. She took her own life because she was afraid she’d fail her exams in school. "I felt thirsty in the middle of the night and woke up. That's when I found Saira hanging against the door. I began shouting for my father and mother. She had shown no sign of being under stress and had chatted freely with my aunt who visited our house last night," Saira’s 11-year-old sister recalled.

"She had been telling me she won't come for training for more than a month because she was afraid her school would fail her in her exams. She said if she failed, she would be rusticated. She had appeared in three papers which she had missed owing to her championships. She was scheduled to appear in the fourth paper on Monday.” Her coach Raju Chaudhry recalled. 

Photo: Saira Sirohi (MensXP)