 | « Back to article | Print this article |
In India, 500 students died by suicide between 2019 and 2024.
What is pushing students to taking this extreme step?
On January 20, 2025, Abhishek Lodha, 20, wrote a short, haunting note to his loved ones.
'I'm unable to study. I am preparing for the JEE exams but it's beyond me. Sorry.'
He then hung himself in his room in the Dakaniya area of Kota, which is famed for its coaching institutes for medical and engineering entrance examinations.
As per NDTV's report (external link), Abhishek, who hailed from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, was a bright student. His uncle said he never spoke about feeling stressed.
Four days before the IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination), and two days before Abhishek's tragic death, 17-year-old Manan Sharma died by suicide at his grandfather's house in the Jawahar Nagar police station area in Kota.
Thousands of students from across India come to Kota to train for two to three years; their goal is to appear for the Joint Entrance Examination, hoping to get an engineering or architecture seat at one of the top IITs (Indian Institutes Of Technology), IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) and NITs (National Institutes of Technology).
The pre-medical entrance examination, NEET-UG, is another competitive examination taken by medical aspirants across the country.
The night before he died, Manan was reported to be studying till late along with his brother. The son of a businessman, Manan had been preparing for the JEE in Kota for the past three years.
On February 24, a Class 12 student allegedly died by suicide (external link), hanging himself from a tree behind his house.
The reason? He was denied the admit card for board examinations due to unpaid school fees.
While each of these cases may seem like incidents of stress in students, one thing seems to be common -- all these students were preparing for competitive examinations.
Kota: Coaching capital or suicide city?
A 2024 report titled 'Student Suicide in India: An Analysis of Newspaper Articles (2019-2023)' published in PubMed (external link), an online research database, reveals that Kota has the highest number of suicide cases in India.
The study, based on an analysis of newspaper reports published between 2019 and 2023, revealed the various reasons why students resorted to suicide.
Academic reasons -- academic dissatisfaction, academic stress and academic failure -- topped the list, followed by bullying, caste discrimination, ragging, harassment and a toxic institutional culture.
Mental health issues like depression, psychological stress and anxiety also triggered the trend. Financial crisis and online gaming are other reported reasons as per PubMed's report.
As India gears up for a season of competitive entrance examinations with acceptance rates as low as below eight per cent for the nation's top undergraduate colleges for engineering and medicine, Divya Nair/Rediff.com spoke to teachers, coaching experts and counsellors who work with teens and parents to understand why young students at the cusp of their life are ending their lives.
The silent suicide trap
Dr Ashish Sehgal, an NLP trainer and transformative coach who also works with teens, parents and students describes the crisis as a "silent trap".
"They feel trapped in expectations, trapped in a future they did not design for themselves. When a young person sees no choice, no escape, the mind narrows its focus and, in that narrow tunnel, the options seem to disappear."
Pressure of multiple examinations
According to Radheshyam Zanwar, founder of Zanwar Classes which prepares students for competitive exams, children are preparing for multiple entrance examinations like the JEE, the state entrance examination, BITSAT, VITEE, etc, which adds to the pressure.
"Most of these exams require students to solve a question in less than a minute. So parents enrol their children in coaching institutes, test series and various study groups where some children get confused, overwhelmed and eventually lose their focus."
Dr Dipankar Dutta, associate professor in the computer science and engineering department at the University Institute of Technology, University of Burdwan, agrees. "The fierce competition and packed schedules inherent in Kota's coaching environment impose immense stress on students. The relentless pursuit of excellence, coupled with the fear of failure, can lead to overwhelming anxiety and depression."
Parental and societal expectations
"The pressure isn't always academic. Parents, coaching institutes and society at large expect students to succeed," notes Anu Krishna, a mental health coach and co-founder of Unfear Changemakers LLP, who works closely with teens and parents of teens.
"Many students grapple with the burden of high parental expectations and societal demands to succeed in these prestigious examinations. The perceived consequences of not meeting these expectations can result in feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness," adds Dr Dutta.
Isolation, loneliness and homesickness
Among the thousands of students who flock to Kota every year to prepare for entrance examinations, a majority are from far-off towns and villages, notes Vipul Tomar, who has been providing independent and shared accommodation facilities in Kota for the last 12 years.
"Rooms cost between Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000 and we install anti-suicide fans and CCTV cameras. But there's always the risk of dealing with vulnerable students who may not be able to handle the pressure," he says.
"I have seen students cramming for days and nights together before the exam and then crashing out. When the results are out, I have seen many students celebrate by sleeping for 24 hours straight up. But I have also seen children leaving for their hometowns overnight, never to return. They don't even come back for the deposit."
While Tomar admits it's not possible to track every student's activity or gauge the mental state of these students, he has a unique solution. "We provide compulsory cleaning services twice a day to ensure that no room stays locked for more than 12 hours."
If you are staying away from your family, there is also loneliness which can prompt children to look for support in the wrong places, notes Anu Krishna.
"When students come back to the hostel or PG, they don't have anyone to talk to or share their problems with," she says.
"Relocating to Kota often means leaving behind familiar support systems. The resultant homesickness and sense of isolation, exacerbated by rigorous study routines, can contribute to mental health deterioration," adds Dr Dutta.
The warning signs
In Kota, there are specially designed anti-suicide fans installed in hostels and student accommodations. But this is not enough.
It is important, say experts, to pay attention to the warning signs, the triggers.
"Students, especially those in their teens, will have all sorts of triggers. But very rarely does a student succeed (in committing death by suicide) in the first attempt," says Professor Rajshree Pant, who teaches physics to students from Classes 9 to 12 in Mumbai
"There will be signs of abuse, trauma or extreme stress. The student may have stopped talking, going out or maybe become overindulgent," she adds.
"Maybe s/he even discussed it casually, dropped hints to a friend or family member but no one paid attention or took them seriously so the student must have felt his/her voice/opinion doesn't matter."
Anu Krishna agrees. "In India, attempted suicides are never recorded. The family usually hushes these things."
Non-academic triggers
Trauma affects children from all strata of society. "There is no fixed pattern," says Zanwar. "The rich and the poor are equally affected."
In fact, academic pressure may just be the tip of the iceberg.
The younger generation is also dealing with failed relationships, social media bullying and other teenage-related issues.
Conflict in relationships
Over 90 per cent of children who are in their teens have relationship issues; "It could be a conflict with parents or with their friends or someone from the opposite sex," observes Zanwar, who trains teens for state board and various entrance examinations.
Anu Krishna further highlights how children as young as 10 and 11 years old are hitting puberty early, having to face challenges they are not mentally prepared for.
"The new generation of kids get into relationships early, many times when they are still in school, and tend to seek advice from peers who may not always give the best solution. These relationships (with their peers) give them a false sense of security so, when faced with a crisis, they crumble," she elaborates.
"Ideally, it is the family which should support the girl or boy when their relationship does not work out."
When a student preparing for a competitive exam unexpectedly fails in a personal relationship, a new layer of stress has been introduced. Naturally, the same academic pressure now appears much larger and the child is unable to cope.
"No matter how old we grow, most of us struggle to deal with break-ups and failed relationships. Here, we are talking about emotionally immature children. Their brains are not equipped to handle this," explains Anu Krishna.
"Social media is not improving the situation; in fact, it is making it worse. They have to look cool in their relationships and also study exceptionally well. It's a huge conflict," she says.
Old versus new challenges
"I am seeing more children aspiring to do bigger things," says Anu Krishna, while explaining how India's education system has not changed. "Very few schools in our country have a balanced left and right brain approach. Our education system still follows a left brain approach where students cram for marks."
The competition now starts much earlier, she adds, a challenge not many students are mentally prepared for. "Schools and parents expect children to start preparing for entrance examinations and their careers as early as when they are in Class 6. But are they really ready for it?"
Over the years, while the pressure to excel academically and get into a dream college has continued to haunt students, one has to take into account all the above accompanying factors that burden students on a daily basis.