Kota an educational hub or suicidal chamber for students ?

As we hear the word ‘Kota’ the very 1^st thing that comes in our mind is a place with a lot of coaching institutes, lots of aspirants preparing especially for NEET/JEE. Kota is also known as ‘Gyan ki Kashi’. It is so because in Kota you will find coaching institute and students everywhere.   

           Kota, which we all know is because of the coaching institutes and students who perform in their exams and become topper. And by seeing the list of toppers and so called topper manufacturing institutes, most of the parents gets influenced blindly and send their children with similar high expectations. Sometimes that expectation gets fulfilled, sometimes does not and we cannot consider it a mistake or failure either by student or parent in every cases. Also, results depend upon multiple factors such as learning and grasping capacity of each student and in fact it cannot be same for every student, for an example a sharp mind student may grasp a topic in his first reading while an average student can take multiple attempts to understand the same topic. Factors such as Health, Self confidence, self motivation, friend circle, society, relatives, social pressure, family pressure, nerves, peer pressure and study pattern also plays an important role for a student or their result. Another important point to consider is that the number of students coming for preparing and number of seats available ratio says a lot of thigs, and its almost less than 1% selection when it comes to MBBS after NEET and almost same with the engineering after JEE. Only Kota itself have many times more students than the total seats available for students all around India. For an example on an average around 3-4 lakhs students comes Kota and the number of selection each year is around 10-15 thousands.

          As we saw above the ratio of students coming Kota to selection of students is least. This gives rise to a dark side of the great Kota. By saying dark side, it means the image which is just opposite to what we see and being hidden from us. With shivering hands while writing the harsh truth of This dark side, fear of failure and failure sometimes results to suicide and its increasing every year in Kota and its becoming a suicidal chamber for students. Every year a lot of young students who could have been future of our nation hang themselves and end their lives. This is neither their mistake nor their parents’. The students who go there just put themselves in Kumbh of students from all over India. As there are students from different places they are very different in every aspect. Some students are intelligent, some are hard working, and some are topper of their school, their districts and their states too, some are dropper (those who already prepared but missed by few marks or rank). But in Kota everyone fights for the same exam and expect the same result too. In practical life, this could not be possible.

           As the result is not same as expected the student starts questioning himself/herself. Parents also not get result what they have seen before sending their wards to Kota. Then they ask their children about why their expectations not get fulfilled even though they have provided everything. The parents also face a lot of questions and taunts from their neighbours and relatives if student is not selected. Some parents do mange to keep these things to themselves and handle this peer pressure while some don’t. And they ultimately ask about these things from the student. At the same time the student see their friends getting selected and going to colleges, who used to live and study together at a time. In this case some students get pressure from parents and society. Some students also manage these pressures but some simply can’t, and they ultimately end their lives. Though it’s not a good decision but they feel they have no other options left and take this horrific step.

In the last few days, the maximum number of suicide incidents have happened in Kota, which is known as a factory that produces doctors and engineers. Every year many students studying in Kota commit suicide under the pressure of studies. ( source- AAJ TAK )

According to the government, at least 121 students have died by suicide in Kota since 2011. 15 have died since 2022 and 52 students have committed suicide in the last four years. (source- Hindustan Times)

In 2021, four students died by suicide as most of them left Kota for their hometown after the onset of Covid. In the last 12 years, more than 150 students have died by suicide in Kota. (source – India Today)

15 and 9 cases of suicide has been reported in 2022 and 2023 (till May 30). (source- TOI)

In recent years, as the number of these cases increased, the coaching institutes and the Kota managements also took many major steps to reduce these types of incidents. Some of the steps are:-

• Issuance of free helpline number
• Motivational sessions in the institutes
• Making teachers as mentor for students
• Providing counsellor in every building of institute
• Arrangement of parents teacher meeting
• Organizing career fair for students  

-Devendra Kumar (BDS PGDCH)

Editor – Ahmad Raza Chishti (MBBS, MMCH)