Yet another suicide by a medical aspirant in coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan has shaken the conscience of people out there in the Rajasthan city to shape their career either in engineering or medical.
In the latest case a 16-year-old NEET aspirant from Jharkhand allegedly hanged herself in her hostel room in the Vigyan Nagar area. Police said Richa Sinha, who was preparing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), was found hanging in her hostel room late on Tuesday.
This is the 23rd case of suicide by a coaching institute student in Kota this year and last year it was 15 such cases. This year has seen the highest number of student suicides — 23 so far — with two ending their lives in a gap of a few hours on August 27 after which the Rajasthan government had asked the coaching centres to contain their courses and take periodic tests only when in need or the students desires.
Soon after the last suicide cases reported in August end the Rajasthan Education Secretary Bhawani Singh Detha held a meeting with Kota collector and other officials in which representatives of coaching institutes and hostel association too attended.
The coaching institutes were asked to stop conducting routine tests of students preparing for NEET and other competitive exams for the next two months in the wake of suicides by a number of aspirants.
The police received information about Sinha’s death around 10.30 pm on Tuesday from the private hospital where she was taken, said Amar Chand, an assistant of sub-inspector at Vigyan Nagar police station. Sinha, who hailed from Ranchi in Jharkhand, was a Class 11 student and enrolled in a coaching institute in the city. She came to Kota earlier this year, he said.
Chand added that no suicide note was recovered from her room and the police are investigating the reason behind the suicide.
Over 2.5 lakh students come to Kota annually to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the NEET for admission to medical colleges.
Packed schedules, cut-throat competition, constant pressure to do better, the burden of parents’ expectations and homesickness are among the common struggles of the students here, according to those working there.
With the record spike in such incidents, the administration has taken several steps including mandating installation of an anti-hanging device in fans and ordering coaching institutes to not take any exam for two months.
This is how the anti-hanging device works: If an object weighing more than 20 kg is hung from the fan, the spring attached to it expands, making it impossible for someone to commit suicide by this method. Simultaneously, a siren goes off.
“Anti-suicide nets” are also being installed in balconies and lobbies of hostels in Kota to prevent students from taking any extreme step. Hostel owners said such steps to make their premises “suicide proof” are crucial to avoid tragic incidents.
The State government has now pitched in to draw lines to contain such cases and have asked parents to stay occasionally with their wards for proper ‘acclimatisation’.
Many parents are now averse to putting their children in hostels and instead they are renting accommodation in Kota and staying with their children by taking breaks from their work all for shaping the career of their ward.
To keep a check on student suicides, Kota Police said it is very important that parents acclimatise their children to the struggles of the city so they do not feel lost here.