Kota is becoming the youth suicide capital of India.
A 16-year-old student committed suicide in Kota, Rajasthan after shooting an 11-minute video addressing his parents on Friday. The student had been undergoing intensive coaching for cracking competitive examinations.
The Hindustan Times reported that the student, identified as Aman Kumar Gupta, of Bihar, was afraid of failing in the examination and was frustrated for not being able to live up to the expectations of his parents. He jumped into Chambal River from a half-constructed bridge after informing some of his friends.
The police have recovered the mobile phone used by Gupta to shoot the video. In the 11.14 minute-long video, Gupta is seen emotionally regretting not being able to live as his parents wished.
“Papa always supported me but I brought shame to him in class 10th and (a) complaint was even made to the school principal then,” Gupta said.
“Everyone at the coaching institute and my friends helped me but I am not been able to do it right,” said Gupta, while expressing self-guilt for not being able to go ahead in life.
Long study hours, the difficulty of courses and long periods of stay away from home are considered as the main reasons for students committing suicide in Kota. The city has witnessed 14 students committing suicide so far this year. The institute where Gupta was studying has been under the scanner of the authorities after repeated suicides of students from the coaching center.
In the video, Gupta did not make any allegation and said that he was committing suicide without any reason.
“Do not cry for me and I am committing suicide without any reason as I do not want to live,” he said.
He addressed his grandfather saying, “I would not be able to do it in life” and urged the parents to forgive him and pursue the education of his younger brother.
Hailing from Raghopur in Bihar’s Vaishali district, Gupta joined the institute six months ago. He was an average student when joined, but his academic performance deteriorated recently, said an official of the coaching center.
An estimated 150,000 students from across the country move to Kota, around 250 km from state capital Jaipur, to enroll in coaching centers. More than 60 students of different institutes in the city have committed suicide in last five years.
In April this year, a 17-year-old student committed suicide in Kota after realizing that her score in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) was more than enough for her to qualify to study as an engineer, which depressed her, as she wanted to study something else.
The student identified as Kriti Tripathi jumped from the fifth floor of the apartment where she lived with his father. Before committing suicide, she had written an emotional 11-page suicide not addressing her parents. In her suicide note, she said that she was not satisfied with the result and she didn’t want to pursue engineering, but Bachelor of Science (BSc). She wanted to become an astrophysicist.
Tripathi said she was distressed at failing to live up to the expectations of her parents who compelled her to choose engineering despite knowing her interest in another subject.
Tripathi used to live in Indira Vihar area with her father Anshuman who runs a travel agency. Her mother was living in Ghaziabad. She moved to Kota two years back where she joined a senior secondary school and took admission in a JEE coaching center.
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Sometimes kids don’t need a reason to commit suicide, but someone, or something usually provokes it.