On December 23, a student from Kota, Shivdutt Singh who was preparing for IIT-JEE hung himself from the ceiling fan and died. It is expected that he was suffering from stress of studying because he mentioned not being able to fulfil his parents’ dream in the suicide note.
This incident was reported as the 18th student committed suicide in the city of Kota, Rajasthan this year.
Each year over one lakh students come to Kota to prepare for the entrance exam of their dream college. With so many students fighting for seats that are less than one-fifth of them, there is bound to be disappointment. But this happiness or disappointment is only momentary, the problem arises when the child decides to take a permanent decision and commit suicide due to the failure.
Problems students face
But only the children are not to blame. Their situation is bad, they are forced to spend hours sitting at coaching institutes attending classes. After finishing that they have to revise the course or prepare for tests on their own. Weekends are not the awaited holidays but the dreaded times as tests accompany them. With this huge competition children compromise on their sleep and food, getting sick in the process of preparing for weekly tests.
Outstation students do not get to meet their families often because they don’t get vacations for more than 4 days. Instead their families are supposed to pay hefty sums of money for the child’s tuition and accommodation which is more than Rs. 3 lakhs per year. They have an additional stress of their parents getting disappointed and their money getting wasted if they don’t do well in their studies.
What is the government doing about it?
The government is taking steps like asking coaching institutes for adding extracurricular activities for students. They will regulate the institutes to give fee payback if students want to quit the classes. And making the curriculum of the students less hectic. Taking tests on Sundays will also not be allowed.
We hope these get implemented soon. And actually make a difference.
What can the students do?
Sure, there are many problems in a student’s life, but there are many little joys of living here too.
So instead of thinking about only the problems here, the students should enjoy moments which only living here would offer:
- The teachers of Kota are hilarious and start cracking jokes and singing in the middle of the lectures
- Kota has a completely different range of special foods to offer like kota ki kachori and poha jalebi
- You won’t be considered an engineering/medical student if you don’t binge watch English shows like The Big Bang Theory or Breaking Bad and lots more like that. At which other point in life would you spend entire nights watching shows on a laptop with your 4 am friends
- Staying away from home gives an equal amount of freedom too. So you can finally sleep whenever, eat whatever, and obviously try out different new things
- It is regardless to say that you develop a personality living in a different place, and start learning about people and behaviours
And if nothing else works out:
If the course here still does not suit you, you should go ahead and convince your parents to let you leave it. Then you can go ahead and discover your true calling. Sure, the convincing may not be easy and there might be risks in other fields, but at the end what matters to you and your family is your happiness.
Or as Stephen Hawking says,
“The victim should have a right to end his life, if he wants. But I think it would be a great mistake. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life there is hope.”
