A student from Assam’s Nagaon died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota Wednesday morning. The body of the student – identified as Parag – was found at his home in the town’s Mahaveer Nagar area.
This is the second such tragedy of the day, and the sixth this month, raising fears of another spate of student suicides in Kota, a ‘hub’ for students looking to crack competitive university entrance exams.
Hours earlier the body of Afsha Sheikh, a young woman from Ahmedabad in Gujarat who had travelled to Kota to study for the NEET exams (for admission to a medical college), was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room in the Jawahar Nagar neighbourhood.
A post-mortem has been ordered and her family has been informed, the police said.
Four other student suicides have been reported this month, starting with the death of 19-year-old Neeraj, who was studying for the Indian Institute of Technology’s JEE entrance test, on January 7.
READ | “Beyond Me, Sorry”: 2nd Student Suicide In 24 Hours In Kota
Twenty-four hours later, a second body was found; 20-year-old Abhishek, also a JEE aspirant.
READ | NEET Student Dies By Suicide In Kota, 3rd Case In 2025
On January 16, the body of 18-year-old Abhijeet, who wanted to be a doctor, was found. And again, twenty-four hours later, Manan Sharma, 18, died by suicide four days before his JEE appearance.
READ | Four Days Before Exam, JEE Aspirant Dies By Suicide In Kota
There were 17 reported student suicides – not including those by school students – from Kota across all of last year. Last year’s count was 38 per cent lower than 2023, when 23 suicides were confirmed.
READ | 50% Decline In Student Suicides In Kota Compared To Last Year
The spectre of student suicides has always haunted ‘coaching hubs’ like Kota, and has been a contentious topic for the government of the day, particularly with opposition parties eager to pounce. The response, however, hasn’t always been as sensitive as is required.
Last week, after the fourth suicide was reported, Rajasthan Education Minister Madan Dilawar claimed “love affairs” were one reason students were killing themselves. He also called on parents to not pressure their children, or wards, into pursuing degrees and careers they did not want to.
Between one and two lakh young men and women flock to the small Rajasthan town every year, each hoping for a ticket granting a high rank in a competitive exam and a lucrative career to follow.
This translates into a hugely profitable industry; last year, despite a reduction in the number of students rushing to Kota, coaching centres there made over Rs 3,500 crore in revenue.
Students killing themselves, however, is bad for business, and the state government, in December last year, announced a raft of measures to stop these tragedies, including stricter laws governing coaching centres, hostels, and student accommodations. Other measures, like sensitivity training for hostel wardens and suicide helplines, were also instituted and credited with a reduction in deaths.
With input from agencies
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