Kota came up with new thought to prevent suicides

Rajasthan, March 31: Recent Student suicides have remained a major issue in Rajasthan's Kota, which has majority of the victims have ended their lives by hanging themselves from the ceiling fan in their rooms.

Now the Kota Hostel Association (KHA), an association of some 700 hostels in Kota, has found a way to prevent students from committing suicides.

Hostels in coaching class hub Kota have decided to attach siren sensors and springs to ceiling fans in their rooms to curb the large number of suicides by students training for competitive examinations.

The spring will lower the fan and the siren will go off if it is made to bear more than 20 kg of weight. The decision was taken by the Kota Hostel Association, media reported.

"The association has decided to make it mandatory for every student hostel registered with the association to attach a secret spring equipment and siren sensor to the ceiling fans of the hostel rooms," Naveen Mittal, President of Kota Hostel Association, told media.

The equipment will be in place in two to three months, said Manish Jain, founder president of the Association.

The spring devices and the sensors will be made by a company in Gujarat. The Association has also decided to install biometric attendance machines in all hostels. Around 80 to 90 hostels of 500 hostels under the Association already have the machines. The hostels will also have CCTV cameras at all entrance and exit points.

At least 17 Kota students ended their lives in 2016 and 30 in 2015. Lakhs of students enroll themselves in coaching centers for competitive exams in the Rajasthan town every year, and the brutal academic environment has been linked to the severe levels of stress among those studying there.