25 student suicides in 2023 at India's coaching hub Kota have revealed the mindboggling stress children confront every day, reports Prakash Bhandari.
Adarsh Kumar, the son of a farmer and a Class 12 student from rural Bihar, is on a mission to build one of India's largest free skill development movements, powered only with a laptop, free Internet and his relentless determination.
The Supreme Court of India has directed its registry to call for a report from IIT Kharagpur and Kota, Rajasthan, after the suicides of a student and a NEET aspirant came to light. The court is seeking to ascertain whether FIRs were registered in both cases, highlighting the disturbing pattern of student suicides in educational institutions. The court has also previously ordered the formation of a national task force to address mental health concerns and prevent suicides in higher educational institutions.
Heavy rains across India have led to widespread flooding, causing damage to infrastructure, displacement of residents, and disruption of normal life. Rescue efforts are underway in affected areas.
A 16-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room in Kota, hours after the National Testing Agency published the answer key for the first edition of JEE-Main 2024, the police said on Tuesday.
Delhi Zone's Rajit Gupta scored 332 out of 360 marks to bag the top rank in the IIT Joint Entrance Exam (Advanced).
The body a 16-year-old JEE aspirant, who left his hostel for a routine test on February 11 and went missing, was found on Monday night stuck between two trees on a rock in a forest area in Rajasthan's Kota, the police said.
The bench said, given the pressing nature of the crisis, particularly in cities like Kota, Jaipur, Sikar, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, and Delhi, where students migrate in large numbers, immediate interim safeguards are the call of the day.
Flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, resulted in casualties and widespread damage, prompting rescue operations and relief efforts.
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Rajasthan minister Shanti Dhariwal has said love affair was a reason behind many suicide cases among students, including a 16-year-old girl who died at her hostel recently, provoking her father to ask him for evidence.
The girl from Bihar -- who had been living in the hostel with her sister -- alleged in her complaint on Tuesday that the tiffin boy repeatedly raped her while the hostel owner warned her against disclosing the incident, Superintendent of Police (Kota City) Sharad Choudhary said.
A regular morning alive with the chatter of students assembling for prayers quickly turned into tragedy on Friday when a portion of their government school building collapsed, killing seven children and injuring 27, some of them critically.
Wardens and staff members of hostels in Kota will be given professional training in mess management, psychological and behavioural counselling, and other aspects of students' care to equip them to battle the rising number of suicides by aspirants in the coaching hub.
The suicides have involved more NEET aspirants than JEE. 'It's a make-or-mar situation.' 'Either you get into a government medical college, where the fee is much lower than in private institutes, or you don't make it.'
Uttar Pradesh native Mohammad Urooj was found hanging from a ceiling fan by a police team on Tuesday, station house office (Vigyan Nagar) Satish Chaudhary said.
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An 18-year-old student preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) allegedly hanged herself at her home in Kota on Monday, leaving behind a suicide note saying sorry to her parents and calling herself a 'loser'.
From mothers on sabbatical to grandparents and homemakers, many people are choosing to shift to the coaching hub Kota with their children to ensure they are not stressed while preparing for entrance exams and do not take any extreme step.
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Hostel owners said such steps to make their premises "suicide proof" are crucial to avoid tragic incidents.
In just the two months of 2025, six cases of student suicides took place in Kota.
Over two lakh students move to Kota annually to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges.
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What is pushing students to take this extreme step?
The police team also found a suicide note addressing his father where the boy had expressed his incapability to crack the JEE, he said.
A 20-year-old NEET aspirant from West Bengal was found hanging in his rented accommodation in Kota but no suicide note has been recovered from his room, the police said on Tuesday.
Bhadur Singh (17), a resident of Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh, was found dead in his room in Mahaveer Nagar-II on Friday night and his body was recovered from the room on Saturday morning, they said.
The editorial came amidst the ongoing tussle between Arlekar and the Marxist party-led Left Democratic Front government over the usage of 'Bharat Mata portrait' during official functions being held in Raj Bhavan.
Worried by a spate of suicides by hanging, the authorities in the coaching hub of Kota have taken a desperate measure -- ordering hostels to install a spring device on ceiling fans to stop students from taking their lives.
Rocked by a spate of student suicides, the city police has set up a dedicated "Student Cell" to reach out to students and make attempts to detect early signs of stress and depression.
This is the eighth case of suspected suicide by a coaching student in Kota so far this year, according to the police.
The nine-page guidelines have been issued days after the state government set up a 15-member committee headed by education secretary Bhawani Singh Detha to examine the issue after record student suicides were reported from coaching hub Kota.
The teenager, preparing for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, allegedly hanged himself sometime in the intervening nights of Monday and Tuesday, they said.
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Rajasthan Police personnel in several districts of the state boycotted Holi celebrations on Saturday to protest their demands, including promotions and removal of salary discrepancies. Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urged the current Chief Minister to intervene and address the police personnel's grievances, while Cabinet Minister Kirodi Lal Meena expressed support for their demands and promised to raise the issue with the government. The police personnel are calling for timely Departmental Promotion Committees (DPCs) meetings, an increase in mess allowance, and other benefits. The boycott highlights the ongoing concerns of police personnel regarding their professional development and financial well-being.
Amid concerns of espionage, the Rajasthan administration has intensified security measures along the India-Pakistan border, with authorities in Jaisalmer and Sri Ganganagar banning the use of Pakistani SIM cards.
A 50-year-old woman attending the retirement party of her husband in Kota collapsed abruptly and died.
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In a fourth case of suspected suicide by a NEET aspirant this month, a 16-year-old student was found hanging in his hostel room in the Kunhari area of Kota, the police said on Thursday.
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