Editorial: No, they don't die only in Kota

At the beginning of the cram school year, a student checking in to his digs in Kota is greeted by the sight of an ‘anti-hanging device’ attached to the ceiling fan. It contains a spring mechanism that supports the normal weight of the fan but uncoils when a greater weight is hung from it. Under recently introduced suicide prevention regulations, such gadgets are mandatory for residences and hostels accommodating students who come to that city to study for the IIT-JEE and NEET entrance exams. Other measures like compulsory 24/7 CCTV surveillance, suicide prevention nets in the balconies and check-in-check-out registers make it a distinctly morbid experience for the students.

In the first year of their operation, the regulations seemed to work. Kota reported 17 student suicides in 2024, a 38% dip compared to 26 cases in 2023, which was the highest ever. The district administration attributed the dip to stricter implementation of guidelines for coaching centres and hostels, and various initiatives under the Kota Cares programme. But this year, things are back to being grim.

In a hearing last week, the Supreme Court grilled the Rajasthan government and the Kota police after they admitted that 14 student suicides have taken place this year. A 17-year-old died by suicide on May 3, 2025, a day before the NEET exam. In April, a 23-year-old NEET aspirant was found dead near a railway track in Kota, with preliminary investigations suggesting he had ingested a poisonous substance.

The judges were understandably exasperated enough to say, "Why are these children dying by suicide and only in Kota?” Their emotions are accurate, of course, but it is a bit of a simplification to say they are only happening in Kota. To be fair, the city administration did adopt some good measures, including WHO protocol gate-keeper training for hostel wardens; a ban on batch segregation based on performance and public display of test results; mandatory weekly holidays and prohibition of exams on days following holidays; and appointment of professional counsellors.

If the Kota suicide problem remains severe, it is because the roots of the phenomenon extend countrywide and go deep into society. Recent data shows that student suicides make up a significant and growing proportion of total suicides in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, student suicides nearly doubled from 6,654 in 2012 to 13,044 in 2022. In 2022, students accounted for approximately 7.6% of all suicides in the country, comparable to suicide prevalence among farmers and unemployed people. Further, the share of student suicides rose from 4.9% in 2012 to 8.2% in 2020, before slightly declining to 7.6% in 2022.

So, there’s no good reason why the student suicide phenomenon, and all its subsets, such as suicides at IITs or Kota, should not be given national policy attention just as much as farmer suicides. There needs to be a recognition at the highest levels of the need for a more comprehensive approach beyond just regulatory guidelines for coaching centres.

Kota got the glare, justifiably, from the judges last week, but it is only one locus of the problem. Any policy to prevent student suicides must examine the role of all stakeholders in this phenomenon, not just cram schools in Kota. In particular, we need to ask why our broader education system has become a contest like the Hunger Games. And why do parents often become a party to that crime against their children?