An 18-year-old student preparing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) allegedly died by suicide at a private hostel in Rajasthan’s Sikar district on Saturday. The student was identified as Nitin Faujdar, a resident of Nadbai town in Bharatpur district, reports PTI.
Station House Officer, Udhyog Nagar police station, Surendra Degra said that the student had come to Sikar in June to prepare for NEET. He had not attended his class on Saturday.
When Faujdar’s roommate found the room locked from inside, he opened a window and saw his body in the room, the SHO said.
This is the second case of student suicide in Sikar. On September 5, another NEET aspirant, Kaushal Meena (16), died by suicide in his hostel room.
At least 25 students have died by suicide in the state’s biggest coaching hub, Kota, so far this year.
After Kota, Sikar houses the second largest number of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and NEET aspirants, who arrive after completing their Class 10 board exams, and register in residential test-prep institutes, mostly from various districts in Rajasthan.
In view of the increasing suicide rates and to curb it, the state government had issued a nine-page guidelines on September 27.
Results of routine tests to be kept confidential, no segregation of students in special batches based on their ranks and a policy for easy exit and refund within 120 days are among the recommendations made in the Rajasthan government’s guidelines for coaching institutes.
The state gvernment had set up a 15-member committee headed by Education Secretary Bhawani Singh Detha, reported The Indian Express.