Kota: Daughter of a farmer from a remote village in Bihar, 16-year-old Sneha Suman had come to Kota to prepare for the high pressure medical entrance exams. On Monday, she was found hanging in her room.
Her parents, who reached Kota today to collect her body, are shattered. They say they find it impossible to imagine what could have pushed their daughter over the edge.
Sneha's older sister had cleared engineering entrance tests. And for the last three years, Sneha was living in Kota, preparing for medical exams from at Allen Institute, a well-known coaching centre.
"We are farmers, but we never let her feel any want. We worked hard, taking whatever jobs came our way, so our children could study," said Geeta Devi, her mother.
While Sneha did not leave a suicide note, it is precisely these struggles the parents go through and their unsaid expectations that create a sense of guilt and pressure on the young, say authorities.
Each year, Kota - a town 250 km from Jaipur known for its coaching centres that prep students for competitive exams -- sees thousands of teens like Sneha coming with big dreams. But some of them find the relentless pressure impossible to cope with.
More than 50 students have committed suicide in Kota over the last five years. Last year, 17 students committed suicide. This year, Sneha was the eighth to give up on life.
In April, Ravi Kumar Surpur, the areas senior administrative official, tried to address this very problem in an open letter, asking parents not to "force their expectations and dreams on their children".
After reading the suicide notes, Mr Surpur wrote, "All of them thought that Death was a much peaceful and effortless action than going through this dilemma of artificially doing what parents want them to do."
Reminding parents that young children are facing "immense amount of pressure relating to their academic performance" he said it was important to understand their needs and create the "right kind of atmosphere for the child to grow and flower".
Her parents, who reached Kota today to collect her body, are shattered. They say they find it impossible to imagine what could have pushed their daughter over the edge.
Sneha's older sister had cleared engineering entrance tests. And for the last three years, Sneha was living in Kota, preparing for medical exams from at Allen Institute, a well-known coaching centre.
While Sneha did not leave a suicide note, it is precisely these struggles the parents go through and their unsaid expectations that create a sense of guilt and pressure on the young, say authorities.
Advertisement
More than 50 students have committed suicide in Kota over the last five years. Last year, 17 students committed suicide. This year, Sneha was the eighth to give up on life.
Advertisement
After reading the suicide notes, Mr Surpur wrote, "All of them thought that Death was a much peaceful and effortless action than going through this dilemma of artificially doing what parents want them to do."
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
List Steps Being Taken To Prevent Student Suicides: Chief Justice To Centre Bengal Nursing Student Dies By Suicide At Her Hostel Room In Bengaluru: Cops JEE Aspirant From Bihar Dies By Suicide In Rajasthan's Kota Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor: The Culprit Behind World's Biggest IT Outage "Fix Deployed": CEO Of Firm Behind Global Microsoft Outage Microsoft Outage "Affecting IT Operations" Paris Olympics Organisers In Jaw-Dropping Video, 12-Foot King Cobra Rescued And Released In Karnataka Biden Or Trump, It's Still A Long Wait For Indian 'Dreamers' In US Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.