A spate of suicides highlights the pressures on students in India

Rising middle class aspirations and fiercely competitive college admissions have made exam coaching schools like one advertised here on Dec. 28 in Kota, India, part of a $400 million industry. (Rama Laksmi/The Washington Post)

By Rama Lakshmi-January 24

Kota, India — Shivdutt Singh left his tiny village of wheat and barley farmers last summer with a dream of becoming the first doctor in his family.

Singh, 20, travelled more than 300 miles from the village of Kolari to Kota, a buzzing city in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan where students from all over the country come to cram for entrance exams to India’s highly competitive engineering and medical colleges.

More than 160,000 students from across India flocked to Kota’s schools last year, feeding the town’s reputation as the nation’s capital for test preparation. But grueling study schedules, frequent testing and round-the-clock stress are taking a deadly toll.

More than 70 students have committed suicide in the past five years in Kota, including 29 just last year — a rate much higher than the national average of 10.6 suicides per 100,000 people in 2014, reported by the National Crime Records Bureau. Students in Kota have hanged themselves, set themselves ablaze and jumped from buildings.

Two weeks ago, Singh became one of them. He had studied nonstop for six hours in his dorm room. He even called a cousin with a biology question.

But then he locked the room and hanged himself from the ceiling fan. He left a note: “I am responsible for my suicide. I cannot fulfill papa’s dream.”

“He was very excited. We used to tease him by addressing him as ‘Doctor,’ ” said his father, Mangal Singh, 52. “But after a few months, he began panicking. He was studying all the time, slept very little.”

[These Indian parents climbed a school wall to help their kids cheat on an exam]

Educators at the private test academies say they can’t explain the rise in suicides, but they concede that the intense pscyhological pressure is real.

“Students are under a constant state of anxiety here. They are unable to study, concentrate, remember, sleep or eat. They complain of headaches and breathlessness. Many just weep in front of me,” said Madan Lal Agrawal, a psychiatrist in Kota who ran a help line for students for three years. “They feel guilty because their parents have spent so much money and have high expectations. Parents often impose their own unfulfilled ambitions on their children.”  

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