Two Indian Students Die By Suicide on Same Day After Taking College Entrance Exam

Two Indian students who were preparing for admission to medical colleges took their own lives on Sunday in Kota, a city on the Chambal River in Rajasthan, northern India. The tragic events that occurred within four hours have taken the number of student suicides in the city to 23 this year, the highest since 2015.

The victims, who were identified as Avishkar Shambaji Kasle, 17 years old from Maharashtra, and Adarsh Raj, 18, from Bihar, committed suicide after taking the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), a test for admission to universities and colleges in India, Erudera.com reports.

According to local media reports, student Avishkar Shambaji jumped off the sixth floor of his coaching center after completing the test. Later, student Adarsh Raj was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room.

“The teen from Bihar had been staying with his sister and a cousin at a rented apartment in the Kunadi area. His siblings found him hanging from the fan in his own room this evening after breaking open the door when he didn’t respond to repeated knocks,” circle officer Dharam Veer Singh told the Hindustan Times.

In an interview with NDTV, the head of the psychiatry department at Kota Medical College, Bharat Singh Shekhawa, said that parents and the coaching institutes must consider their approach to students’ mental health in order to prevent such tragedies.

He highlighted there is a rising trend in student suicides in the city of Kota and that the town has recorded the highest number of suicides by students in 2023. According to him, recommendations were presented to the Rajasthan government for two decades, but the latter did not act.

“During the COVID-19 lockdown, there was no pressure on students as they had the support of their families and were at home. However, after the lockdown, the pressure has returned, and that umbrella support has gone,” Shekhawat told the New Delhi Television.

Following the death of students, the government ordered coaching institutes to not hold the exam for the next two months.

Shekhawa recommended setting an age limit for students admitted to coaching institutes that offer preparations for college admission, pointing out that the age of 15-16 is too young, and students are under a lot of stress due to the strict coaching schedule.

According to Erudera’s research on the most challenging exams in the world, three of the toughest tests are conducted in India, lasting three hours. These exams are:

• IIT JEE Exam (Joint Entrance Exam - Indian Institute of Technology)
• UPSC Exam (Union Public Service Commission)
• GATE Exam (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)