NEET Aspirant From West Bengal Dies by Suicide in Kota, 28th Case This Year

A student from West Bengal, who was preparing for the medical entrance exam, NEET in Rajasthan’s Kota has died by suicide. This is the 28th case this year. The 20-year-old student, identified as Forid, was living in Kota’s Waqf Nagar area, reported NDTV. Forid had shifted to Kota to prepare for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG last year.

He was found hanging in his room last evening and was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, the police said. The incident happened on November 27. According to the other students staying in the same rented accommodation as Forid, he was last seen at 4 pm. When the student did not step out of his room till 7 pm and did not answer their calls, the other students raised an alarm and it was then that the landlord rang up the police.

No suicide note was found. The student’s family members have been informed, police said. Further investigation is on.

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Earlier, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by a Mumbai-based doctor named Aniruddha Narayan Malpani accusing coaching centres of treating students like “commodities” to further their financial interests and thereby pushing them to the brink of death. According to the petition, which was argued by advocate Mohini Priya, while student suicide cases in Kota have made news, the situation is prevalent in other private coaching centres in the country, and there is no rule or regulation holding them accountable.

Replying to the PIL, the Supreme Court had said that parents, not the institutions, put excessive pressure on students to perform well in competitive exams. The top court said that blaming the mushrooming of coaching institutes for the increased suicides among students, particularly in Kota, was not correct and it is the high expectations placed by parents in a competitive surrounding that drove youngsters to end their lives.

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