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To stop suicides, Kota to have ‘masti ki pathshala’ moments regularly

KOTA: A day after Kota district administration undertook a major exercise to de-stress coaching students to curb the spate of suicides and directed institutes to organize activities like painting and singing as part of its ‘Masti ki Pathshala’ campaign on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy committed suicide on Sunday, sending shock waves in this educational hub. With this, 30 students have killed themselves in the city this year.Bhanu Kumar, who was found hanging from a fan in his hostel room, is the youngest student enrolled with a coaching institute here to have committed suicide in the last three years. The death has flummoxed the district administration which had held an elaborate meeting with representatives of coaching institutes to tackle the suicide epidemic just three days ago.Kumar, a resident of Saharsa district in Bihar, came to Kota when he was just 13 to improve his performance in physics and mathematics. He was enrolled in class IX at a school here and at a coaching major for an edge course in science subjects. Unlike other suicides, Kumar was under no pressure as he had two-and-a-half-year time to appear for a competitive exam.According to details obtained from his institute, Kumar was irregular at the coaching classes, having attended just five of them since August this year. “The detailed documents show that the coaching institute has auto-generated three messages on his father’s cell number detailing about his chronic absenteeism, but they got no response. Thereafter in September and November, they made three calls to his father but the calls were not answered,” said ASI Radha Kisen, the investigating officer in the case.Investigation revealed that Kumar was living alone in a rented accommodation and his batch mates hardly remember him. Even during the winter vacation, when both his school and coaching institute were closed, Kumar was in Kota. He was also in Kota during the Diwali break, his hostel owner said.TOI called his school principal for his track record but got no response.ML Agrawal, a senior clinical psychologist who has been counselling coaching students from past one decade said, “His absenteeism was a sign of his depression which was overlooked. Students at such tender age often suffer from ‘separation anxiety’. Stress factor cannot be ruled out as he must be under constant pressure to perform in school and at coaching classes.”Kumar’s body has been sent for a post-mortem and his parents are reaching Kota to claim the body.