Another student suicide in Kota: 22 cases in 8 months, 4th case in just 15 days

A yet another unfortunate case of suspected suicide has come to the fore from Rajasthan’s Kota, India’s ‘coaching hub’. An 18-year-old boy reportedly committed suicide on Tuesday night, 15 August. According to the police, the reason for the suicide has not been ascertained. 

The 18-year-old boy identified as Valmiki Jangid came to Kota a year ago in July 2022. He is a native of Bihar’s Gaya. He was studying in a coaching institute for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains examination for getting admission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He was staying in Kota’s Mahavir Nagar area since last year in a rented apartment. 

Following the incident, Mahaveer Nagar police station informed the family of the deceased student Valmiki Jangid and stated that a post-mortem will be conducted once the family arrives here in Kota. However, police stated that they didn’t find a suicide note in his room.

SHO Paramjeet stated that the incident reportedly took place at around 10 pm on Monday night. However, the police received the information at 8 pm on Tuesday night. 

As the 15th of August was a holiday, all the students were in their rooms. When a student in the adjacent room did not see Valmiki till 7 pm on Tuesday evening, he knocked on his door but he got no response. Subsequently, he informed the landlord, and after half an hour, the landlord got no response from inside the room when he knocked on the door. They then informed the police about it. 

When they broke the door at around 8 pm in the presence of the police, Valmiki was found hanging from the window of the room. Afterward, the police conveyed the information to his family members.

Later, his father Vinod along with his relatives reached Kota at 10 am on Wednesday.  Vinod retired as a Subedar from the Indian Army a year ago. He said that his son came to Kota at his own insistence and he had no desire to send his son to Kota. He added that on the evening of August 14, he spoke with his son twice over the phone but there was no hint of stress and his son did not say anything alarming.

Kota Suicide menace: Alarming situation as the coaching hub witnessed 4 cases in 15 days and overall 22 in 8 months

This is unfortunately fourth such case of suspected suicide in a span of just 15 days.  This year, as many as 22 coaching students have reportedly committed suicide in Kota, India’s coaching factory.

Earlier, on the 3rd of August, the body of Manjot Chhabra (18), a resident of UP’s Rampur district, was found under suspicious circumstances in the hostel room. His mouth was tied with polythene, and both hands were also tied with a rope. There were three notes on the wall of his room. 

He was preparing for the NEET exam. Though it was considered a suspected case of suicide, his parents expressed suspicion of murder. They alleged that their child was killed. They argued that the body had polythene on his mouth and his hands were tied behind his back, so it cannot be a case of suicide.

It was deeply saddening to hear the grieving Harjot Singh Chabra Ji, the father of Manjot singh Chabra who was brutally murdered while he was living in Allen Hostel, Kota and preparing for NEET entrance exam.
Rajasthan police and hostel authorities are deliberately saving the… pic.twitter.com/vnIlbZRqCO

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) August 9, 2023

While probing the case, the police registered a case of murder against 6 people including the classmate of the deceased student and the owner of the hostel.

A day later, on the 4th of August, Bhargav Mishra (17), a resident of Motihar in Bihar, reportedly committed suicide in his room at night. As per reports, he hanged himself from the water pipe in the cooler and committed suicide. He came to Kota 4 months back and was preparing for JEE.

Later, on 10 August, Manish Prajapati (17), a resident of Azamgarh, UP, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself in the hostel. He came to Kota 6 months ago and was preparing for JEE. A few hours before the suicide, his father had gone to meet him.

A video recently went viral on social media, in which hordes of students can be seen rushing towards their examination centre. The visual was shared widely, with concerns as to how the rat race in Kota seemingly puts stress in the minds of vulnerable students. Reportedly showing the beeline of students over multiple floors of Allen Careers Institute in Kota, the video depicted the rush and the craze among Indian families for admission into IITs and medical colleges.

India has Lost So Many Precious Talents & Lives Because of Mindless Pursuit for Exams like IIT, UPSC. This is Scary!

pic.twitter.com/kyYaai7Jh6

— Ravisutanjani (@Ravisutanjani) August 14, 2023

There is one line in ‘Kota Factory’, a web series based on the struggles of students in this coaching hub, it goes like this, “Bache do sal me Kota se nikal jate hai,  Kota salo tak bacho se nhi nikalta.”

In over-glorification and brainwashing/planting of the importance of IITs, the non-materialistic aspects of life go for a toss. The binary utopian and dystopian pictures based on the outcome of whether you got selected for IITs or not, fixate the centrality of a child’s life on it and failure is like looking into the abyss with no end in sight. Click here, to know more about the reasons that are leading to soaring student suicides in the city.

According to NCRB data, student suicides reached an all-time high in 2022. This unfortunate number rose by 4.5% as compared to 2021. According to an India Today report, in the last 12 years, more than 150 students have died by suicide in Kota.