The country’s coaching hub Kota recorded its 18th suicide on Friday, the second within two days, belying the local administration’s claims of making all possible efforts to stop young students from ending their lives.
Bhargav Mishra, a 17-year-old engineering aspirant from Champaran district in Bihar, hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his PG room in Mahaveer Nagar area.
The incident took place sometime on Friday afternoon, but came to light around 8.30 pm, when the class XII student failed to answer his parents’ phone calls.
Mishra had come to Kota in March this year for IIT-JEE coaching. According to DSP Harshraj Singh, initial probe revealed the teenager was not seen outside his room after 11 am on Friday. When his parents called him up in the evening, his mobile phone was switched off. They called up the PG’s caretaker, who informed police. Cops reached the spot around 8 .30 pm and broke the room’s door.
No suicide note was recovered from Mishra’s room, Singh said, adding that a detailed inquiry into the reasons behind the suicide would be initiated soon.
Unabated cases of suicide by coaching students, climbing to 18 in Kota this year, point to the failure of measures taken by both government and social organisations in the past 8 years, including deployment of psychologists at coaching institutes, regular fun and recreational activities, weekly offs, fee refund policy, and setting up students’ helpline desk and helpline number.
Suicides by coaching students in Kota had gone unnoticed until the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report in May 2015 mentioned that Kota had witnessed a rise in suicide cases by 61.3%. The report mentioned that out of 100 suicide deaths in 2014 in Kota, 45 were by students who took the extreme step after failing in exams, 26 due to failure in love affair, and 24 due to family problems.
The NCRB report published in media outlets caused a turmoil in the Kota coaching industry, with the local administration prompting the state government to take cognizance of the issue. Guidelines were now formulated to curb the trend of suicides by coaching students in Kota.
The then Kota district collector Ravi Kumar Surpur even wrote an emotional letter to parents in May 2016 asking them to not burden their wards with expectations and to let them do what they wanted to do. Surpur also introduced fun activities, deputed psychologists at coaching institutes, mandated a weekly off for students, and authored a 20-page booklet that combined fun reading, graphics, famous quotes, catchy one-liners from Bollywood movies to boost confidence among students.
The efforts brought down suicide cases by coaching students to 7 in 2017 from 17 in 2016 and 18 in 2015. But 20 cases of suicide were reported in 2018 and another 18 in 2019. No suicide was reported in 2020 and 2021 as the coaching students had left for hometowns due to the Covid-19 shutdown. Next year, 15 cases of suicide by coaching students were reported as the coaching classes restarted in 2022.
Social and peer pressure, parental expectations, homesickness and failing to cope up with exacting study schedules are some major factors that drive teens to suicide in Kota, says ASP Chandrasheel Thakur, in charge of the students’ helpdesk in Kota.
Despite regular counselling and motivational sessions, the rising cases of suicide has led to a confusion about the right remedy for it, said a psychologist deputed at a coaching institute.
