For millions of people, the cramped coaching centres in Kota are a lodestar. Teenagers jostle for a once-in-a-lifetime shot at prosperity by securing a seat in India’s premier engineering and medical schools. On their shoulders is not just the weight of their careers but the load of expectations of their families. And, for decades, despite burgeoning concerns of pedagogy, mental health and student future, Kota has delivered; which is why thousands of people pour into the dusty Rajasthan town every year from the hinterland. Unfortunately, there is a macabre side to this successful factory line of young men and women. Over the past 48 hours, a 17-year-old student from Uttar Pradesh was found dead at a rented accommodation in Kota and another student was suspected of having died by suicide and left a note. Just this month, four students have died in the coaching hub, taking the toll this year to a grim 15. The same number of students ended their lives in Kota in 2022, underlining that things were not getting any better.
Around 225,000 students study for entrance exams in Kota. Research has established that many find the grind stressful, tipping some vulnerable people over the edge. A 2018 report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences found many students depressed, ill, anxious, and unable to deal with the pressure and the breakneck pace of coaching. The state government, too, has proposed a bill to regulate institutes but this is yet to be operationalised. There is an urgent need for more robust oversight and a relook at the testing patterns for these prestigious exams. No student’s life is worth the drudgery of inhuman pressure and untimely death.
