Within four hours, two NEET aspirants allegedly committed suicide in two separate incidents in Rajasthan’s Kota on Sunday(August 27), taking the total toll to 22 this year, police said.
Kota Suicide: The hustle and bustle of Kota continues to witness a distressing trend of medical student suicides. With the increasing cut-throat competition, academic pressure, fast-paced curriculum, and programme structure, the suicide rate had been significantly increased. For an aspirant preparing for competitive exams in Kota, the subject of ‘student suicide’ is becoming a new normal. Within four hours, two NEET aspirants allegedly committed suicide in two separate incidents in Rajasthan’s Kota on Sunday(August 27), taking the total toll to 22 this year, police said.
2 NEET aspirants commit suicide in a day in Rajasthan’s Kota, 22 this year
Avishkar Shambaji Kasle (17), jumped from the sixth floor of his coaching institute’s building in Jawahar Nagar at around 3.15 pm, minutes after walking out of a room on the third floor of the institute after taking a test, they added. The institute’s staff rushed Kasle to a hospital but he succumbed on the way, Vigyan Nagar Circle Officer (CO) Dharmveer Singh said, news agency PTI reported.
2 Kota Student Suicide Within 4 Hours
Four hours after Kasle’s death, 18-year-old Adarsh Raj, who was also preparing for the competitive exam, hanged himself in his rented flat in under Kunhadi police station area at around 7 pm, police said. When the teen’s sister and cousin brother reached the flat around 7.30, they broke open his room, which was locked from the inside, and found Raj hanging from the ceiling, Circle Officer (Kunhadi) KS Rathore added.
Raj was reportedly breathing when he was taken down but succumbed on the way to hospital, he said.
A native of Maharashtra’s Latur district and a Class 12 student, Kasle was preparing for NEET UG in the city for three years and was living in a rented room in the Talwandi area with his maternal grandparents, CO Singh said, adding that his parents are government school teachers in Maharashtra. Raj, a native of Bihar’s Rohtas district, had been preparing for NEET UG in a coaching institute in Kota for a year and was living in a rented 2BHK flat with his sister and cousin brother, who are also preparing for competitive exams, police said.
No Suicide Note Recovered From Both Aspirants
As per police, no suicide notes were recovered from either of the students’ rooms. Kasle took a routine test in the noon session on the third floor of the coaching institute and jumped from the sixth floor of the building — onto around 72 feet down in the backyard — immediately after giving the test, Vigyan Nagar CO said. The spiral stairs of the building were not covered and it would be investigated how the teen climbed to the sixth floor amid the presence of staff and other students, he said.
575 Marks to 288 Marks; Is Low Marks only the reason for students suicide?
The reason behind Kasle’s suicide is likely to be his low marks in the routine tests at the institute as he was scoring well earlier but dropped from 575 marks to 288 marks in the last routine test, CO Singh said. Raj, who also took a routine test at his coaching institute in Kunhadi police station area limits in the noon session on Sunday, was reportedly scoring low marks in the tests and was upset over the same, ASP (Kota city) Bhagwat Singh Hingad said while interacting to media in the mortuary of MBS hospital, where the 18-year-old’s body was placed for post-mortem.
Peer pressure, stress, depression, forced career choices, parental pressure, fear of failure, caste-based discrimination at educational campuses, gender-based violence, and ragging are a few alarming reasons behind student suicide cases in India
The post-mortem of both the bodies will be conducted on Monday after the arrival of their parents, police said. The suicides of Kasle and Raj have taken the total toll of suicides by coaching students in Kota to six this month and 22 this year alone.
Bizarre move! Can Spring-Loaded Fans Prevent Student Suicides?
In a bid to bring down the rising cases of suicide by coaching students in Kota, the district administration has directed all the hostels and paying guests (PG) accommodations in the city to install spring-loaded ceiling fans. The bizarre move was taken as a means to manage the mental health crisis going on in the coaching hub of the country/ If an object weighing more than 20 kilos 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.
Last year, fifteen coaching students died by suicide in the coaching hub, where around 3 lakhs students from acrosss the country are currently preparing for various competitive exams in different institutes of the city.
98 students died by suicide in higher education institutions in past five years: Govt
According to the Union Ministry of Education, Ninety-eight students died by suicide in the past five years in higher education institutions, including central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs, and IISERs. Twenty cases of student suicides have already been reported in higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2023 so far. These include nine cases from central universities and seven from IITs. The data was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, PTI reported.
(If you are having suicidal thoughts or need any emotional support, here are some helpline numbers: Sneha Foundation – 04424640050 (available 24×7), the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ helpline – 02225521111)
(With PTI Inputs)
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