Police reach out to students as counsellors amid Kota suicides

A team of police personnel have turned counsellors in the country’s coaching hub Kota. They pose questions like, Is anything bothering you? Do you want to become an engineer or a doctor? Are you able to follow what is taught in class? Is food served in the mess good? to students to understand their situation.
After an unfortunate series of student suicides, the city police have decided to set up a dedicated “Student Cell” to reach out to students and make efforts to discover early signs of stress and depression among them.
According to Kota Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Chandrasheel Thakur, “The cell has a control room where personnel are deputed to receive calls on the dedicated helpline. They attend to the problems reported on calls and direct them to counsellors if a student needs professional help. There are teams that conduct random checks in hostels, interact with students, counsel them and report to their parents if they spot some signs of pressure, stress or depression.”
ASP Thakur heads a team of 11 police personnel. According to him, the team is carefully chosen as all the members are in their 40s and have teenage children, which will help them understand the challenges faced by the students.
ASP Thakur said, “We have reached out to 60,000 students so far. Sometimes the students are reluctant to share with us that they are under some kind of pressure from parents. We also reach out to wardens to be able to tell us if they spot any change in the behaviour of students if he or she is missing classes or skipping meals. If we identify such students, we are able to get them help much before they reach a stage where they take any extreme step.”
Around 2.5 lakh students move to Kota every year to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges. However, many of these students are unable to cope with the stress. This year 2023 has seen the highest number of student suicides, the figure is 22 so far, with two ending their lives in a gap of a few hours on August 27. In 2022, the figure was 15.
Due to packed schedules, constant pressure to do better, cut-throat competition, the burden of parents’ expectations and homesickness, students are struggling in Kota.
ASI Sanju Sharma said, “I leave from the control room at 9 am and visit at least 20 hostels — both girls and boys. I speak to as many students as I can.