Super 30 founder Anand Kumar ‘shaken’ after Kota suicides, advises students, parents

Anand Kumar, mathematician and founder of Bihar’s Super 30 coaching centre, is “shaken” by the recent spate of suicide by students and engineering and medical college aspirants in Rajasthan’s Kota. Taking to X, Kumar appealed to all the coaching operators to “not make education only a source of income” and instead “pay attention to all the children considering them as your children.”

Advising students not to take such drastic and tragic decisions, Kumar who is well known for teaching underprivileged students for various engineering entrance exams further wrote,  “One exam does not have the strength to test your talent. There are many ways to be successful in life.” He further asked the parents to not expect their children “to fulfil their unfulfilled dreams.” 

Kota witnesses spate of suicides

Avishkar Kasle, a 17-year-old boy from Maharashtra's Latur, on Monday (28 August) ended his life after jumping off the sixth floor of a coaching institute's building in Kota. He was a sincere and clever student and had shifted to Kota for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) coaching following in the footsteps of his brother, said his kin and friends. 

Avishkar Kasle died at 3:15 pm in Kota's Jawahar Nagar area, minutes after taking a mock NEET paper, police said.

Avishkar had completed his primary and secondary education in Ahmedpur and was preparing for medical entrance exams for the last three years, they said, adding that he was staying in Talwandi area in Kota along with his grandparents.

Four hours after Kasle’s death, 18-year-old Adarsh Raj, who was also preparing for the same competitive exam (NEET), hanged himself in his rented flat in Kunhadi police station area, police said.

When the teen’s sister and cousin reached the flat, they broke open his room, which was locked from the inside, and found Raj hanging from the ceiling. Circle Officer (Kunhadi) KS Rathore said Raj was reportedly breathing when he was brought down but succumbed on the way to hospital. 

According to police, no suicide notes were recovered from either of the students’ rooms.

With the deaths of Kasle and Raj, there have now been a total of six coaching-related suicides in Kota in August 2023 and 22 overall this year.

The coaching hub of Kota currently has about 3 lakh students from across the nation studying for various competitive exams for various engineering and medical colleges. At least 15 students had committed suicide in 2022.