Kota city of Rajasthan is considered to be the hub of engineering coaching. Every year lakhs of students come here to study. During the admission season, there is a long queue of students outside coaching institutes but this time the decreasing number of admissions has surprised everyone. The reason for this is the increasing cases of suicide in Kota.
Why do students commit suicide in Kota?
Retired professor Premchand Gautam, who lives in Kota, says that when children come from their cities and get off the train at Kota railway station, they see huge hoardings of different coaching institutes all over the station. There are huge hoardings of All India rank holders and seeing the photos and ranks of those toppers, those children also feel that their photos will also be put up in these hoardings one day. They feel that now they will definitely become doctors or engineers. They dream but when they are unable to fulfill it, they are unable to control themselves and take steps like suicide.
Are students getting mislead by seeing the hoardings of coaching institutes?
After reaching Kota, when the children come out of the station, they meet two people in the same form. An auto driver and a broker who promises to drop them to their destination and get them a good hostel. There are coaching institutes at a distance of 5 km from the station. Auto drivers charge ₹200 to 250 from those children and after that comes the turn of the hostel people. In expensive hostels, a room is available for 10 to 25 thousand. If you want to take admission in a big coaching institute, then you have to spend about one lakh rupees. Similarly, inflation kept increasing day by day in Kota and children kept avoiding it and now the number of children in the education city of Kota has come down from 2 lakh to 1.20. In the year 2022, where more than 2.5 lakh students came to Kota, this time this number is 1.20 lakh.
Lakhs of students come to Kota with dreams of preparing for JEE and NEET and spend years struggling to get into top medical and engineering institutes, but now this era seems to be coming to an end. The luxury hostel project worth more than Rs 1,400 crore in this city of Rajasthan is starting to look like a ghost town. The plan to transfer many coaching institutes of Kota here seems to be failing.
Hostels lying vacant in Kota
More than 250 buildings in Coral Park on Baran Road have ‘To Let’ and ‘For Sale’ posters. Admissions in different institutions have fallen by 35-40 percent. Investors who had participated in Coral Park’s scheme are facing a lot of problems. Usually more than 2 lakh JEE and NEET candidates come to the educational city of Kota every year, but this time it is not so.
Hostel income increased from 3 lakh to 30 thousand
Nearly 4 thousand hostels, PGs and more than 1500 messes are being run in different areas of Kota city. The people running about four thousand hostels and PGs in Kota city make their living from the students. Here, rooms are given to students on rent of up to 6-7 thousand in most of the houses. This year, the monthly income of hostel PG operators in Coral Park Society has come down from about 3 lakh rupees to 30 thousand rupees.