How to Prevent Student Suicides? Kota Administration Thinks Spring-Loaded Fans Are the Solution

With suicides among students in Kota, the coaching capital of the country, once again rising, questions have been raised on what measures are being taken to prevent aspirants from taking such a drastic step. Amid serious debates on the grave issue, the Kota district administration’s latest move has triggered outrage among mental health experts and the student fraternity. The administration has asked all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations in the city to install spring-loaded ceiling fans instead of the regular ones.

Taking to microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), several users slammed the administration for coming up with superficial steps instead of addressing the issue of pressure on students.

“It seems like the administration is finding problems with the fans, not the way the education system is going on. Instead of fans, teachers and syllabus can be fixed,” wrote one user.

Another said: “This is rather more depressing to install such equipment that reminds students why its install. Peers/family pressure, constant ranking in coaching centres, back to back competition exams combined with school exams. There are several root causes why a student takes extreme steps and they are installing “hanging prevention” equipment! (sic).”

“Instead of doing something about the mental health of the students, yeh kar lo,” another user commented.

The spring-loaded fans ‘recommended’ by the administration are ones in which the springs installed fall off automatically when a load of more than 20 kg is hung to the fun.

Thousands of JEE, NEET, and other competitive exam aspirants move to Kota every year to prepare for the examination. The cut-throat competition, long study hours, constant pressure from family and faculty besides the emotional strain of being away from home is a shock for many.

The Kota district administration had earlier announced that psychological tests will be conducted for coaching students every fortnight to detect any suicidal tendencies among students. A district-level meeting with representatives of coaching institutes, hostels, and other stakeholders was held on August 12 to review the implementation of guidelines for coaching institutes and hostels.

News agency ANI quoted president of the Kota Hostel Association Naveen Mittal as saying that the latest direction on spring-loaded fans would be difficult to enforce. “The hostel and PG accommodation is an unorganised sector and it would be difficult to keep track of whether all hostels have installed the spring-loaded fans.”

— with inputs from agencies

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