Jaipur:
A scholar from Assam’s Nagaon died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota Wednesday morning. The physique of the coed – recognized as Parag – was discovered at his residence within the city’s Mahaveer Nagar space.
That is the second such tragedy of the day, and the sixth this month, elevating fears of one other spate of scholar suicides in Kota, a ‘hub’ for college kids seeking to crack aggressive college entrance exams.
Hours earlier the physique of Afsha Sheikh, a younger girl from Ahmedabad in Gujarat who had travelled to Kota to check for the NEET exams (for admission to a medical school), was discovered hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room within the Jawahar Nagar neighbourhood.
A autopsy has been ordered and her household has been knowledgeable, the police stated.
4 different scholar suicides have been reported this month, beginning with the dying of 19-year-old Neeraj, who was learning for the Indian Institute of Know-how’s JEE entrance check, on January 7.
READ | “Beyond Me, Sorry”: 2nd Student Suicide In 24 Hours In Kota
Twenty-four hours later, a second physique was discovered; 20-year-old Abhishek, additionally a JEE aspirant.
READ | NEET Student Dies By Suicide In Kota, 3rd Case In 2025
On January 16, the physique of 18-year-old Abhijeet, who needed to be a health care provider, was discovered. And once more, twenty-four hours later, Manan Sharma, 18, died by suicide 4 days earlier than his JEE look.
READ | Four Days Before Exam, JEE Aspirant Dies By Suicide In Kota
There have been 17 reported scholar suicides – not together with these by faculty college students – from Kota throughout all of final yr. Final yr’s depend was 38 per cent decrease than 2023, when 23 suicides have been confirmed.
READ | 50% Decline In Student Suicides In Kota Compared To Last Year
The spectre of scholar suicides has at all times haunted ‘teaching hubs’ like Kota, and has been a contentious matter for the federal government of the day, notably with opposition events wanting to pounce. The response, nonetheless, hasn’t at all times been as delicate as is required.
Final week, after the fourth suicide was reported, Rajasthan Schooling Minister Madan Dilawar claimed “love affairs” were one reason students were killing themselves. He additionally known as on dad and mom to not stress their youngsters, or wards, into pursuing levels and careers they didn’t wish to.
Between one and two lakh younger women and men flock to the small Rajasthan city yearly, every hoping for a ticket granting a excessive rank in a aggressive examination and a profitable profession to observe.
This interprets right into a massively worthwhile business; final yr, regardless of a discount within the variety of college students speeding to Kota, teaching centres there remodeled Rs 3,500 crore in income.
College students killing themselves, nonetheless, is unhealthy for enterprise, and the state authorities, in December final yr, introduced a raft of measures to cease these tragedies, together with stricter legal guidelines governing teaching centres, hostels, and scholar lodging. Different measures, like sensitivity coaching for hostel wardens and suicide helplines, have been additionally instituted and credited with a discount in deaths.
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