From Preparation to Suicide: Coaching Centres Turn 'Military Camps'

Kota has always been the first choice for engineering and medical aspirants to prepare for their competitive exams. Every year an estimate of 1.5 lakh students come to Kota and indulge themselves in the grueling preparation. A hefty amount of 1 to 1.5 lakh is being charged per year from students as tuition fees.

Kota has more than 130 coaching centres under its belt which roughly accounts to a 600 crore industry. The city was under a scanner recently when more than 7 students committed suicide in just 2 months which raised the question of pressure on students, to a point where they end their lives.

The Citizen contacted a few student to seek their response on the kind of pressure they are facing and the hectic life they are living there.

"For me it is no less than a military camp" says Vivek Tiwari who is preparing for his medical examination at one of these odd institutes in Kota. He further said "My parents always wanted me to be a doctor and as soon as I gave my boards my father sent me here". This is not just Vivek's story so many students every year are sent by their parents to meet up to their expectations but where goes the personal interest, this is what's hardly talked about.

Amid parents expectations, there are also students who genuinely have interest of getting into these fields and they find the hectic preparation schedule to be extremely reasonable. "Pressure has become a part of our lifestyle and this is what we are here for, success doesn't come that easy" feels Karan who has been here from more than 2 years.

Most of the coaching centres operate like schools they start at 8 in the morning and then goes on to 4 or 5 in the evening. They have dress which is mandatory to follow. " I wake up at 5 in the morning and prepare myself to reach the class on time which starts at 8 and ends at 4, after coming back I revise what I learnt in class. This has been my routine from past 10 months" says Himanshu who aspires to be a software engineer one day. When asked about how much time he devotes to sleep. He laughs and says "Since I came here, I have not slept for more than 5 hours in a day but I will sleep for days when I am done with my exams".

"The government should constitute a regulatory body to monitor coaching institutes in the district" said Rajasthan Governor in wake of the recent suicides but he did not mentioned what the regulatory body will do to tackle the current problems.

"We don't get much holidays. We don't meet our families for months. Every other day we have mock test and we literally have to cram things" recalls Deepak an ex student of Aakash Institute.

With the ever increasing number of suicides the need is to get more and more Academic counsellors to help students who are facing this mental trauma and above all it's the parents who need to understand their child's interest ahead of their own dreams.