By Prabhanu Kumar Das
May 17, 2021
Kota became a hub for engineering and medical aspirants in the 80s, reinventing itself with the growth of many coaching centres promising a quality education.
Add to the fact that Indian parenting contains a lot of pressure towards material results for appreciation and care, one can see how the journey to Kota is daunting and extremely stressful to many students.
There are no fee refunds, up to 18-hour study shifts, and segregation based on ability. Fees are anywhere between 50,000 to a lakh annually.
The pressure just becomes worse and worse for students coming from marginalized and economically weak backgrounds whose parents have had to borrow money to send their ward to Kota.
Since 2013, Kota has seen 85 suicides. The mental trauma that Kota inflicts on students is harrowing.
A student dies by suicide every hour in India, and a lot of it is due to the pressure that the system puts on students. Institutes like those in Kota arise out of the desperate need of struggling students to get that extra edge.