Kota, a beautiful city on the banks of River Chambal, has the unique distinction of being India’s only city without a traffic signal. Kota also has the distinction of being India’s “student suicide capital.” In 2023, as many as 26 students took their lives, making it the highest toll ever, with an average of more than two student suicides every month in Kota.
The city is known for its students who gather in thousands every year to prepare for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exams at different coaching centres whose industry revenue is pegged to be around Rs 5,000 crore per year. The students virtually run the economy of the city, indirectly generating thousands of jobs. But in the cutthroat arena of electoral politics, the students are nobody’s concern as student suicide is not remotely an election issue in Kota, the seat occupied by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
‘WE’RE NOT A VOTE BANK’
Sujay Pandey, who studies at a leading coaching institute of Kota, hails from Uttar Pradesh. On a sultry afternoon, as his class went into a break, he stepped out and was looking for buttermilk to quench his thirst. The frown on his forehead was a giveaway about his disgust with not just the sweltering heat but also the way both the BJP and Congress are running the campaign in Kota. “No parties are raising student issues. The reason is we are minors. We aren’t a vote bank for them. When we get the voting rights, it’s the same political parties that will appease us with schemes and promises,” Pandey told News18.
Yashika Jain feels the toll the competition takes on students’ mental health is very real in Kota. “They have expectations from family back home that have sent them, of the institutes and their own. Often, living alone, they get sucked into a web of uncertainty. What further complicates this is the attitude of many parents who dismiss it. You can’t let them be. You have to stand by them,” she said. Jain, who herself is preparing for JEE, said that in some cases, in the most vulnerable moment, some students take the extreme step. “Kota has more students than adults. Student suicide is a persistent problem here,” she admitted.
Pandey said, “Who doesn’t know that student suicide is a problem here? But it’s not an electoral issue for political parties. They should reign in the institutes not to mount unwarranted pressure, government should diversify making new Kotas across India.” He argued staying close to home often helps.
Khyati, a Kota local, minced no words, “The government should work hard to curb this menace of student suicides.” She too acknowledged that it has no place in the political discourse in Kota. She though had a unique take. “Many miss home, its food. If hostel food can be better, they would at least feel at home here,” she argued.
It’s been just one week since Asmita Sharma shifted to Kota from Pauri-Garhwal’s Srinagar. She said her mother, too, has shifted with her and will stay till the preparations aren’t wrapped. News reports of Kota made her parents worried about letting her shift alone, she said.
KOTA SUICIDES JUST A STATISTIC FOR NETAS?
Last year was brutal for Kota when a record 26 students died by suicide. According to the data, 15 students died by suicide in Kota in 2022.
Last year on July 17, a 17-year-old NEET student allegedly died by suicide in Kota’s Jawahar Nagar. News18 visited Jawahar Nagar. After numerous enquiries, a fruit juice seller who did not wish to come on record, said, “Yes I remember. I did not see the student but I heard he took the extreme step within a week of coming to Kota. I wonder what happened within a week. But many who have committed suicide in Kota did so soon after coming to Kota. I remember another student who took his life within two months of coming to Kota.”
Coaching institutes, some of whom work as serious business entities, have employed security guards who monitor students even after they step out of their peripheries and stop them from interacting with the press even 100 metre away.
These suicides are not a new trend. But of late, the numbers have been steadily increasing. In 2019, the year of the last Lok Sabha election, as many as 18 students took their lives in the city that is marketed as ‘India’s Education Hub’. In 2018, that number was 20. While 2017 was relatively better with just seven student suicides, Kota saw 17 students take their lives in 2016. The number a year before that was 18.
But for political leaders in Rajasthan, particularly in Kota, regardless of their affiliations, these seem to have become mere statistics that aren’t worthy enough to be an election issue.
NOBODY’S CHILDREN
The local MP of Kota Lok Sabha constituency, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, has been winning this seat non-stop since 2014 as an MP and much before that as an MLA. The twin issues the high profile BJP candidate has been focusing on by and large in his campaign are the ‘work done by Narendra Modi’ and attacking Congress. He even said that “Modi is the only factor, everywhere”.
On the other hand, his opponent, Prahlad Gunjal, a BJP rebel who switched to Congress a few months ago and is now fighting on a Congress ticket, has been running his campaign alleging Birla has created an “atmosphere of fear” and even deputed drones above his house to intimidate electorate, a charge Birla rubbished.
But, neither has raised the issue of Kota student suicides in their election campaign in Kota. When asked specifically about this, Birla told News18, “These sons and daughters (who have come to Kota to study) are my family members. It is always my earnest effort that there is not a single suicide. State government, administration, NGO — all are working towards it. I feel pained even at a single suicide incident. We will try better.”
But in spite of all the ‘work’, Kota student suicides hardly find any mention in either BJP or Congress’s campaign, social media content or election speeches. “If there’s any tension, they should pause and think for 10 minutes. The future ahead is long,” was Birla’s quick fix.
The 26 students who took their lives last year remain forgotten in the political arena where caste, religion and sects matter more. Kota students remain everyone’s forgotten children, this election season.
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