Students in Sikar study not only for their own local Class XII test but also for the national NEET and JEE examinations. Some students find the constant demands of the course to be overwhelming, particularly while they are separated from their families.
According to police statements made on Monday, a student who was 16 years old and who was getting ready to take the NEET in order to qualify for a medical programme committed suicide on Thursday night in the city of Sikar in the state of Rajasthan.
This case in Sikar comes on the heels of the suicide deaths of 23 coaching students in Kota earlier this year.
According to the police, the young man from the Karauli district had arrived in Sikar in the month of April and was sleeping at a hostel in the Udyog Nagar neighbourhood.
The student went back to his house five days ago after being away for a few weeks on vacation. It was in the afternoon on Monday that he decided to take such a drastic action…,” said Surendra Singh Degra, the station house officer (SHO) of the Udhog Nagar police station.
The roommate returned to the hostel and tried repeatedly to draw someone’s attention by knocking on the door, which was locked from the inside, but was met with silence each time. It was then that the suicide was discovered. After then, the administrators of the hostel forced open the door, and inside they discovered the adolescent still hanging from the fan.
According to Degra, there was no note of suicide found in the room, and the early investigation has not yet suggested that the student had exhibited any stress-related behavioural abnormalities. According to him, the autopsy on the dead would take place at the hospital where the district medical college is located.
Another applicant for the NEET exam passed her by taking her own life at her hostel in the same neighbourhood in Sikar on September 7, 2022.
After finishing their Class X examinations, students from other districts of Rajasthan move to Sikar in order to enrol in residential test-preparation schools in order to increase their chances of passing the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility and Eligibility Test (NEET).
Only in test-preparation institutes do students attend lessons. These institutes not only prepare students for their Class XII examination, but also, and perhaps more crucially, for competitive entrance examinations like NEET and JEE. Some students find the constant demands of the course to be overwhelming, particularly while they are separated from their families.
On August 18, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, voiced his concern over the increase in the number of student suicides across the state as they prepare for competitive examinations, notably in the city of Kota, which is known as a coaching centre. He instructed officials to organise a group that would be led by the secretary of Higher Education Bhawani Singh Detha and would consist of all of the relevant parties, including coaching institutes. This committee would be tasked with suggesting measures that could be taken to prevent incidents of this nature.
“There shouldn’t be any further rise in such (suicide) cases… the time has come for improvements,” the author of the study said. We are unable to watch as young students take their own lives… Even the passing of a single child is tragic and represents a significant loss for their parents, as stated by Gehlot.
