The Kota district administration issued an order on Thursday, August 17 requiring all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in every room “to provide students mental support and security”. This action was taken in response to a string of 21 suicides that have shaken the nation’s coaching hub and sparked calls for urgent reforms in the town in Rajasthan.
“To provide mental support and security to the students studying/living in them and to prevent suicides from increasing among coaching students in Kota city, all hostel/PG operators in the state are directed to install a security spring device in the fans at every room, as discussed in Saturday’s meeting,” the official statement issued by Kota district collector Om Prakash Bunkar read.
The district administration also urged owners of coaching centres, hostels, and PGs to follow a December 2022 order mandating a weekly day off for students, a class size cap of 80 students, as well as required psychological testing for both students and teachers.
The letter further stated that non-compliant lodgings and institutions will be seized and the appropriate action taken against the owners. Accordingly, several Paying Guest (PG) accommodations and hostels installed spring-loaded fans in the rooms of Kota to decrease suicide cases among the students. The video of the installations was shared by the news agency ANI.
#WATCH | Spring-loaded fans installed in all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations of Kota to decrease suicide cases among students, (17.08) https://t.co/laxcU1LHeW pic.twitter.com/J16ccd4X0S
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) August 18, 2023
Also, Naveen Mittal, President of the Hostel Association commented on the issue and said that “90-95% of hostels in Kota have already installed spring-loaded fans but many PG accommodations are undefined and there is no coordination with the owners. It is a big challenge for us and also for the administration to make these PG owners follow the guidelines.”
#WATCH | Rajasthan: Naveen Mittal, President of Hostel Association, Kota speaks on the increasing suicide case among students and steps taken by the administration to decrease it. (17.08) pic.twitter.com/IOwnxjxy69
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) August 18, 2023
Increase in Kota suicide cases; 22 reported in the last 8 months
This comes a day after the city of Kota reported its 22nd suicide case in the last 8 months on August 15. One 18-year-old boy identified as Valmiki Jangid came to Kota a year ago in July 2022. He was a native of Bihar’s Gaya and was studying in a coaching institute for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains examination. He wanted to get admission into the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). But he committed suicide on August 15.
The recent occurrence has again drawn attention to Kota’s troubling record of student suicides. Every year, thousands of students from all over the nation come to this educational hub in Rajasthan to study for competitive tests to enter the best engineering and medical schools in the nation.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of student suicides at Kota, with many placing the blame on the stress of studying and students’ dread of failing. Last year, Kota had a total of 15 student suicides. But this year, the death toll has already reached 22.
In May this year around 5 suicide deaths of students from the city of Kota in Rajasthan were reported. Later the number continued to rise and to date around 17 students have committed suicide, possibly out of exam pressure. Some students happened to hang themselves while others are said to have jumped off the tall buildings.
Proposals similar to spring loaded fans proposed earlier
Earlier, several similar proposals were pushed to curb the rising suicide rates of students, some of which seemed absurd. But given the increased suicide rate, it seems that these proposals also need to be looked into. The Indian Institute of Science had proposed to install wall-mounted fans in hostel rooms last year and remove the ceiling fans. Others meanwhile only partially addressed the issue, such as the recommendations made by the Board of Intermediate Education in Andhra Pradesh in 2017 to reduce student stress, which included offering yoga and physical education programs and keeping a healthy student-teacher ratio.
It is tragically obvious that the bigger problem, that of the punitive educational system which is just not meant to support young intellects or equip them for today’s economic realities is still not being addressed. It seems that it will take time for the New Education Policy 2020’s vision which offers more academic flexibility to lessen the strain on students to be completely implemented.
