Kota: Student preparing for NEET commits suicide, 26th case this year

Kota has once again been shrouded in terrible gloom as it grapples with another student suicide. The Kota police on Monday said that a 17-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh has committed suicide by allegedly consuming poison at a coaching institute. Tragically, this marks the 26th case of student suicide this year, and the second incident within the past two weeks in the prominent coaching hub of the city.

Priyam Singh, a student from Mau in UP, was in Kota for the last one year to prepare for NEET-UG. The teen was reportedly seen puking outside her coaching facility. She was brought to the hospital, where she died while receiving treatment.

Additional Superintendent of Police Bhagwat Singh Hinger told India Today that the girl consumed poison. Her body has been sent for post-mortem.

Meanwhile, according to a PTI report, three city hostel associations have signed an MoU with the Jai Minesh Tribal University to provide professional training to hostel wardens and staff members in mess management, psychological and behavioural counselling, following a record number of suicides this year by students preparing for engineering and medical entrance exams.

According to the report, the Jai Minesh Tribal University would develop particular Hostel Management certificate courses for wardens and staff.

According to Kota Hostel Association president Naveen Mittal, the coaching hub has 3,500 hostels and over 2.5 lakh students visit each year to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges.

This year has witnessed the most student suicides, with 26 so far. Last year, the figure was 15.

In the face of a record rise in suicide rates, government have been compelled to boost their efforts in countering this tragic trend. One of the measures implemented includes the mandatory installation of anti-hanging devices in ceiling fans. Besides, coaching institutes, notorious for causing massive stress among students due to continuous exams, have been ordered to halt all examinations for a stretch of two months.

The Kota Hostel Association has been encouraging the installation of anti-hanging devices since 2017, and the district administration has finally enforced it this year.

The Kota police department is also recruiting wardens, mess employees, and tiffin service providers to monitor for signs of depression or stress among students staying in hostels and PGs.

While wardens are encouraged to actively participate in the "darwaze pe dastak" (knock on door) campaign, the Kota police have urged mess workers and tiffin providers to report if a student is repeatedly absent from the mess and skips meals, or if anyone's tiffin is found unconsumed, according to the report.

"Anti-suicide nets" are also being erected in the balconies and lobbies of Kota hostels to keep students from taking extreme measures.

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