Can bureaucracy actually end suicides?

Jaipur: The incidents of suicide of students in Kota have become extremely worrisome as one after the other such incidents are coming to light. Two incidents have already happened in the month of August and from January 2023, a total of eighteen students have committee suicide.

The incident of August 3 has taken a new turn as the parents of the deceased Manjot Chhabra believe that their child has been murdered. They have registered a FIR against the owner of PG, Manager and one student while naming a few more individuals in the FIR under section 302 and 120 of IPC. The parents have also appealed to UP CM Yogi Adityanath for justice.

In the past five years, total 70 students have committed to suicide, but the suicide of eighteen students in the current year is worrisome. Prior to this, in 2019, eighteen students committed suicide in the entire year.

Kota is the nerve centre of IIT coaching and at present 2.25 lakh students are studying in this city. More than a dozen coaching centres are operating in the city and after the murder case, tension will set in.

MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur has given suggestion to solve the matter stressing that two Collectors should be posted in Kota and one of these Collectors should specifically handle the coaching front. This suggestion has weightage too.

2004 bath IAS Ravi Kumar Surpur was Collector of Kota from 2015 to 2017 and had played the role, above and beyond the role played by a general bureaucrat. In his two year long tenure, a total of twenty four suicides occurred. Surpur had written an open letter to the parents of all two lakh students and said, “It is my unfortunate destiny that I read the suicide letters of the twenty four students. It is my heartfelt appeal to all parents not to impose your wishes and expectations on your children. Do not create pressure on them. Let them choose a subject of their liking.”

This five page open letter had brought to life what the movie ‘3 Idiots’ had shown. Apart from this, Surpur also conducted regular counselling of thousands of students and brought them out of depression. With the slightest of information, Surpur would directly approach the concerned student.

In June this year, SP Sudhir Choudhary also stopped two students from taking the wrong course. He reached the spot with his team immediately on information and even saved a student who had hung himself from a noose within second before his arrival to the spot.

Foregoing Law and Order, Collector and cops should focus on these children and try to find out which students are under depression. The students should then be counselled and the parents should also be immediately contacted so that this issue is addressed and the matter is resolved, at least to some extent.