The dark side of Kota must be an eye opener for the rest of the country amidst the craze to get into the prestigious IITs
While Rajendra Nagar in Delhi is the coaching hub for UPSC aspirants, Kota is the same for NEET or medical and JEE or engineering institutes.
Every year, thousands of students across the country are sent by their parents to study in the coaching institutes that promise sure shot success for getting into the prestigious medical colleges and the most important- IITs or Indian Institutes of Technology.
But beneath the glitzy and glamorous base lies a very dark superstructure.
This superstructure is horrifying to say the least. Understanding the dark underbelly of the Kota coaching machinery is necessary.
Immense Pressure On Students
Students who have studied and are studying in Kota face one thing-immense pressure.
That pressure emanates not only from parental expectations, but also vast nature of the syllabus coupled with the ‘notes’ of coaching institutes.
The emphasis is placed on churning out the brightest who can score cent percent in the JEE or NEET exams.
The will and wish of students are never asked.
Suicide Is The Last Resort
At least 14 students studying in coaching centres here have committed suicide this year.
Of the three students who committed suicide in 2022, NEET aspirant Ankush Anand (18) and JEE aspirant Ujjwal Kumar (17), both from Bihar, were found hanging from ceiling fans in their rooms at their paying guest (PG) accommodation on December 12, 2022.
This is according to the police.
The number of suicides by coaching centre students stood at 18 in 2019 and 20 in 2020.
Institutes Promising Instant Success
Institutes in Kota, just like the UPSC counterparts in Delhi promise instant success to parents.
They are lured by the appeal of seeing their children getting into premier engineering colleges.
Several coaching institutes highlight vastly exaggerated success stories and even use fraudulent ways to project their high success rate. This is a promotional scam.
The dark side of Kota must sent alarm bells ringing throughout the country.