Kota gears up to tackle suicides by students, comes up with ceiling fans with springs, sensors

The NCRB in its 2014 report said at least 45 students committed suicide in Kota due to fear of failure in exams. Last year, 17 students committed suicide in Kota.

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Kota: In a bid to deal with rising cases of suicide by students, hostels in Kota, known as the capital of competitive exam coaching in the country, have come up with new tactics.

A siren sensor and a spring device that will lower ceiling fans if anyone over 20 kg tries to hang by it will be affixed to fans in hostel rooms.

Notably, Kota has seen a rise in cases of suicides by stressed out students.

In most of the suicides, coaching students hanged themselves from the ceiling fans of their hostel rooms.

Keeping this in mind, the Kota Hostel Association has decided to attach a spring equipment and a siren to the ceiling fans of the hostel rooms providing accommodation to coaching students.

"The association has decided to make it mandatory for every student hostel registered with the association to attach a secret spring equipment and siren sensor to the ceiling fans of the hostel rooms," Naveen Mittal, the president of Kota Hostel Association, told PTI.

The secret spring equipment attached with the ceiling fan is capable of bearing a weight of not more than 20 kg and will come down with the expansion of the spring if anyone heavier than 20 kg tries to hang from the fan, he said.

Besides, the secret sensor with the fan will also start blaring out alerting authorities.

A firm from Gujarat has been given an order for the supply of the spring equipment and sensor and the work to attach the equipment and sensor is underway in some of the hostels. The process is expected to be over in two to three months, said Manish Jain, the founder president of the Association.

Besides, biometric attendance machines would also be installed for daily attendance at all the hostels in Kota and the same would be made accessible to parents, hostel warden and officials of the association through a mobile message.

Biometric machines have been installed in 80 to 90 hostels in Land Mark area of the city.

Around 500 to 550 hostels are currently registered with the association, he said.

Besides, CCTV cameras would be installed at the entrance and exit roads, points and gates in areas where the coaching institutes and hostels are located, Jain said.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) in its 2014 report said at least 45 students committed suicide in Kota due to fear of failure in exams. Last year, 17 students committed suicide in Kota.

The state government as well as the district administration has taken several measures and issued guidelines to check such incidents.

Around 1.75 lakhs students from across the country have come to Kota in recent years for coaching for entrance tests in IIT/JEE and NEET.

(With PTI inputs)