“Mammy Papa, I can’t do JEE. So I commit suicide. I am a loser. I am the worst daughter..sorry mammy papa, yehi last option hai.” This is what an 18 year old girl who was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) wrote in her suicide note before she hanged herself on 29th January 2024.

According to the reports, the girl’s grandmother knocked on the door of her room in the morning but there was no response. Getting worried because of no response, the family broke open the door and found the girl hanging from the ventilation window above the door. The girl was a student & was preparing for the JEE through online classes of a recognised coaching center in Rajasthan’s Kota for admission in an engineering course. She was scheduled to take her JEE test on 30th /31st January 2024. The girl was the eldest of three sisters. Her father is a security guard at a private bank in Kota. Her family belongs to Akawda Khurd village in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan but all of them have been staying in Kota for the last 3 years. During the initial investigation, one of her cousins said that the girl was under severe stress over the upcoming JEE test. She had to repeat her 12th Class exam because she had got a low score in the finals. The case is being handled by local circle officer DSP Dharmveer Singh. He has the girl’s body for an autopsy and is further investigating the case. This is the second such incident within a week in Kota. On 23rd January 2024, a 19-year-old Uttar Pradesh based student preparing for National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) died by suicide in his hostel room in Kota. Last year, a total of 27 students allegedly committed suicide in Kota. Kota is the center of India’s test-prep & entrance exam business for National Level IIT, AIMS, Engineering and Medical institutions. It is estimated to be worth ?10,000 crore annually. In 2023, the district administration & Rajasthan had announced the following measures to prevent suicide:

• ordered all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in rooms.

• mandatory screening test

• the alphabetical sorting of students into sections instead of a ranking-based one

• Cumpolsary student behavioral changes training & suicide prevention trainings for teachers, institute managers, other staff, and the wardens of the hostels and paying guest accommodations.

The government also warned of legal action against faculty of coaching institutes if they violated any of the regulations.The Union education ministry also announced restricted enrolment above the age of 16 in any coaching center. Violation of this law will cost the institution a penalty of ?1,00,000 on 16th January 2024.

Tags

• students commit suicide
• suicide
• student suicide

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