Biometric attendance machines will also be installed for daily attendance at all the hostels in Kota and will be made accessible to parents, hostel wardens and officials through mobile message.
A student studies in a classroom at the Bansal Classes in Kota, in the desert state of Rajasthan, August 13, 2012. Credit: Ahmad Masood/Reuters/Files
Kota: A siren sensor and a spring device that will lower ceiling fans if anyone over 20 kg tries to hang by it will be affixed to fans in hostel rooms in the coaching hub, Kota, grappling with rising cases of student suicides.
Kota, known as the capital of competitive exam coaching in the country, has seen a rise in cases of suicides by stressed out students.
Most of the suicides in the past in Kota were committed by coaching students who hang themselves from the ceiling fans of their hostel rooms.
Keeping this in mind, the Kota Hostel Association, has decided to attach a spring equipment and a siren to the ceiling fans of the hostel rooms providing accommodation to coaching students.
“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 PTI.
The secret spring equipment attached with the ceiling fan is capable of bearing only 20 kgs and will come down with the expansion of the spring if anyone heavier than 20 kgs tries to hang from the fan, he said.
Besides, the secret sensor within the fan will also start blaring, alerting authorities.
A firm from Gujarat has been given an order for the supply of the spring equipment and sensor and the work to attach the equipment and sensor is underway in some of the hostels. The process is expected to be over in two to three months, said Manish Jain, founder president of the association.
Biometric attendance machines will also be installed for daily attendance at all the hostels in Kota and the same will be made accessible to parents, hostel wardens and officials of the association through mobile message.
Biometric machines have been installed in 80 to 90 hostels in Land Mark area of the city. Around 500 to 550 hostels are currently registered with the association, he said.
Besides, CCTV cameras will be installed at the entrance and exit roads, points and gates in areas where the coaching institutes and hostels are located, Jain said.
The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) in its 2014 report said at least 45 students committed suicide in Kota because they were afraid of failing in exams. Last year, 17 students committed suicide in Kota.
The state government as well as the district administration has taken several measures and issued guidelines to check such incidents.
Around 1.75 lakhs students from across the country have come to Kota in recent years to receive coaching for entrance tests for IIT and NEET.