Rise in suicides in Kota is unsettling for parents and aspirants after considering it as their preference for academic preparation, in India

Another suicide has been reported in Indian city Kota, last month. This is 28th suicide case in the city. This city in Rajasthan is making headlines this year for reporting shocking number of suicides attempted by students. As per the information, a student named Forid from West Bengal died by suicide. He was preparing for NEET, All India entrance examination to medical education institutions. Kota is known as a coaching hub for several competitive examinations such as IIT and NEET. Every year, students from across the country enroll themselves in coaching centers’ in Kota to appear prepared for national level competitive examinations.
Reported by NDTV, ‘He was found hanging in his room last evening, police said. He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Other students living at the rented accommodation where Forid stayed have told police that they saw him last at 4 pm. When he did not step out of his room till 7 pm and did not answer their calls, they raised an alarm. It was then that the landlord rang up police’. Academic pressure and deteriorated mental health is assumed to be one of the causes according to mental health expert, however no suicide note has been found yet.
‘I was planning to send my son to Kota for IIT preparation after he completes his 10th. But now I am having double thoughts. I am hearing multiple cases of suicide which is disturbing’, said Mr. Gaurav Chouhan. He works in bank and has high expectation from his son. He believes, his dream was to be an engineer but he couldn’t pursue it because his family was poor. Today, he want his son to fulfil his dream with no financial restrictions. But he said that mental health over academic pressure should be prioritized by everybody, including the ones who are working in this field. It is their responsibility.
Students not only from west India but from different states come to Kota and is their first preference. Shagun went Kota during her school years when aimed to pursue medical. She said, ‘I spent there 2 years as I was aiming to crack NEET examination. I was accompanied by another friend and we rented a house together. The environment there is quite academically driven and you see lot of students around you working so hard that pushes you to do beyond your capabilities, and sometimes it takes a toll on you complete differently. There were times when I wanted to leave and go back. But then the thought of failure and judgements, convinced me to stay.’ Shagun is working in a private hospital and call her Kota journey ‘depressing’. According to her, coaching centers’ running at such large level should include mental health section in their timeline along with feedback forms with mentality to welcome suggestions or recommendations. ‘It is very important for such education institutions who are providing academic service and are largely preferred, to include mental health for students in this journey since competitive examinations are stressful. Along with it, they should also distribute feedback forms to welcome suggestions or any recommendations coming directly from students. Because, sometimes students cannot share the challenges they are facing to their teachers due to a certain student-teacher relationship in India we have. We don’t consider it friendly or emotional instead it is respectful and disciplined. Either manually or virtually, there has to be a common ground on students opening up about their mental health to any professional’ she said.
While Shagun recalled her ‘low spirit’ experience in Kota, Mr. Chouhan shared his concern towards rapid growth in suicide numbers. He told EAT news, ‘They are obvious concerns. As a parent when I send my child far away to study, to a place where most of the students live away from their families, it becomes institution’s responsibility to create a healthy environment for all of them. Considering the fact, the city is first preference to aspirants for shaping their career, along with institution it should be government’s duty too, to make sure of healthy and positive environment for students.’ He further added that, government is not paying attention to this worrisome news instead their agenda either involves building infrastructures or promoting religious beliefs. Never they concentrate on mental health domain which is highly required in present.
Escalation in suicides this year alarmed everybody, resulted to Rajasthan state government coming up with stricter rules and regulations for these coaching institutes. On 29th September, guideline issued by the government said to not encourage admissions of students below age 14 and to not make test results public. In brief, the guidelines mentioned to stop glorifying toppers in a batch of aspirants and to work towards discouraging competitiveness among students. As per information NEET 2024 is going to take place on 5th May 2024 whereas IIT JEE Main 2024 exam will be conducted in two sessions, January and April.