Suicides: NCPCR summons Kota collector tomorrow - India Today

Suicides: NCPCR summons Kota collector tomorrow

PTI

June 8, 2016 | UPDATED 22:45 IST

New Delhi, Jun 8 (PTI) 

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned Kota District Collector tomorrow regarding a spate of suicide cases involving IIT-aspirants studying in various coaching centres in the town. The commission is probing 44 suicide cases in the coaching hub during past three years. This is the second summons in two months for the District Collector Ravi Kumar Surpur, a senior NCPCR official said today.

"We are not getting any co-operation from the local administration. We have sought information from them on 33 points. We want to know how many teaching and non-teaching staff are there across coaching centres.

"We have also demanded that the police verification of the staff be carried out. We want to know how many authorised and un-authorised hostels there are in Kota for students. 

This time we want the district collector to give us the date on an affidavit by when he will share all the information with us," the official said. The Commission, which has been probing the matter since December last, visited Kota in April to carry out an inspection.

"We saw that these (coaching) centres were in a terrible condition. There were 250 students packed in one classroom, there is no grievance redressal system for students and even though there is a helpline number available the same has not been displayed at these centres. We also noticed that at one of the centres there were only four counsellors for 77,000 students," the official said. 

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NCPCR expresses concern over student suicides - TNN

NCPCR expresses concern over student suicides

PTI | May 6, 2016, 08.27 PM IST

Chandigarh, May 6  

Taking a serious note of increasing student suicides in Kota, a hub of engineering and medical entrance exam coachings, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) today said it has come across glaring violations not just in the Rajasthan town but in Chandigarh as well where these institutes have mushroomed.

"In Kota, in the past three years 42 suicides of children have been recorded. In this year alone, there have been 4-5 cases. Commission is of the view that we cannot allow children to die like that. Steps need to be taken to check this disturbing trend," said Priyank Kanoongo, Member Education, NCPCR, while addressing a press conference here.

He said the commission had visited Kota last month and it had sought a response from district administration and the institutes about the suicides.

Kanoongo, however, said so far they have not received any satisfactory response.

On the reasons behind the students taking such extreme steps, he said the coaching institutes had a system of "batch shuffling".

"Like they have a star batch and students are under pressure to join that batch. It leads to stress among rest of the students who are unable to make it to that batch. One who has not even appeared in the (IIT and other entrance) examination, he/she is told that they cannot get selected since they fail to make it to the star batch," he said.

On the mushrooming of coaching institutes, he said, "We will give our recommendations as new educational policy is being framed."

Officials of the commission will visit other coaching hubs in India and give their recommendations to the government so that national-level guidelines are formulated.

In reply to a query about some coaching institutes in Chandigarh allegedly forcing students to wear a particular uniform and carry bags with their logos, Kanoongo said they were taking advantage of the absence of any regulatory authority.

"They go scot-free. What we are saying is somebody has to regulate them," he said.

He said through chief secretaries of concerned states, they have sought report from district magistrates of places around the country which have emerged as coaching hubs.

"We have decided to visit places where such coaching hubs exist, be these in Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, part of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra or elsewhere. We have identified various hubs, like Latur, Indore, Vijaywada, Tiruchirappalli etc," he said.

"We will prepare a detailed report...A countrywide guideline has to be framed on how coaching institutes can be regulated," he added.

He said the commission will give its observations to the government after preparing a report in 3-4 months. (MORE) SUN AAR RG AAR

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