Jaipur: A 16-year-old student preparing for the all-India pre-medical entrance test allegedly died by suicide in his hostel room in Rajasthan’s Kota on Wednesday night, taking the number of student suicides in the coaching hub to eight this year, and four in May.
Senior police officials said that the student came to Kota a little over a month ago from Nalanda in Bihar to prepare for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Deputy superintendent of police (Kota), Shankar Lal, said that the incident came to light on Wednesday, when his parents called the hostel warden after failing to get in touch with their son over the phone.
“The door to his room was locked. The police was informed and the door was broken only to find him hanging from the ceiling... He was a Class 12 student,” Lal said. Preliminary investigation suggests that the 16-year-old was troubled over a romantic relationship, police said. “We are investigating the case, but it seems his parents were aware of the relationship,” Lal added.
Read: Student found hanging from ceiling fan of hostel room in Kota
{{/usCountry}}Read: Student found hanging from ceiling fan of hostel room in Kota
{{/usCountry}}With over 200,000 students thronging its cottage industry of coaching institutions every year, Kota produces toppers of competitive examinations every year from across fields -- engineering, the public services and medicine- but also its reputation has been marred by a string of suicides, with students buckling under mental stress, exam pressure, and the inability to deal with living on their own in a competitive environment. The suicides this year underline the importance of urgent interventions to help students deal with mental health problems, and assess the efficacy of a government bill brought last year. The bill, which is yet to be tabled, prohibits private institutes from glorifying success of toppers in any examination, prescribes an aptitude test for admission in private coaching institutes and makes registration of all coaching institutes, even if they are running only online classes, mandatory with the government.
In 2023 alone, eight students have died by suicide while two others have made attempts on their lives.
Read | Kota suicides: Students were depressed, did not attend classes for days, say police
On May 11, a 15-year-old student from Uttar Pradesh was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room, the second such suicide in four days. Last year, 15 coaching students died by suicide. Since 2011, government data shows, at least 121 students have died by suicide.