16 year old NEET aspirant commits suicide in Kota, making it the 5th such incident this month, and the 23rd case this year

A 16-year-old NEET aspirant committed suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota on Sunday, making it the 23rd case this year and the 5th such incident this month. The deceased has been identified as Avishkar from Maharashtra who was preparing for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test. He allegedly died after jumping from the 6th floor of a building. 

"He was 16 years and 11 months old and was preparing for NEET. He was a student in class 12. He was living with his maternal grandparents. He jumped from the 6th floor. We have sent his body for post-mortem”, said Dharmveer Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Kota. The preliminary report filed by the police states, the 16-year-old committed suicide minutes after a scheduled weekly test. "He committed suicide five minutes after getting out of the exam hall. The body was sent to the district medical college hospital for an autopsy and a forensic science laboratory team was sent to the spot for further investigations. His parents have also been informed”, added the Superintendent of Kota Police. 

This comes days after the state authorities had ‘suicide-proofed’ the state by installing spring-loaded fans and anti-suicide nets in balconies to curb deaths by suicide. Rajasthan’s Kota reported the highest number of suicide deaths recorded in a month, in the last 8 years. 

A similar case was reported on Saturday from Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh, where a girl preparing for UPSC allegedly committed suicide. A police probe into the same is underway. 

The number of deaths due to suicide has been exponentially rising in Rajasthan and has put the government on a war footing to avert these incidents. The CM of Rajasthan, Ashoke Ghelot formed a committee that would examine such cases and submit a comprehensive report on the rising number of student suicides in the state. Referring to the NCRB data on student suicides, Ashoke Gehlot said, “According to NCRB, around 13,000 students died by suicide in 2021. Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of suicides with 1,834 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,308), Tamil Nadu (1,246), Karnataka (855) and Odisha (834). The problem can be solved with a collective effort." In an official statement, the state government stated that the number of such suicides in Rajasthan was 633 and assured that the government is ‘serious and sensitive’ towards curbing this problem.