Kota, 2023: The City That Had to Change Its Ceiling Fans

In 2023, Kota recorded at least 26 student deaths by suicide — one roughly every two weeks. The administration's most visible response was to mandate spring-loaded ceiling fans that disconnect under the weight of a human body.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please contact iCall at 9152987821 or Vandrevala Foundation at 1860-2662-345 (24/7, multilingual).

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Kota, Rajasthan, is a city built almost entirely around one idea: getting students into IIT and AIIMS.

Approximately 150,000 to 200,000 young people live in Kota at any given time, most between the ages of 15 and 20, most living in paying guest accommodations or hostels, most having left their families in other states to spend one or two years in intensive preparation for JEE or NEET. The city's economy — its coaching institutes, its hostels, its food stalls, its stationery shops — is organised entirely around their presence and their fees.

In 2023, at least 26 of those students died by suicide.

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The Numbers

The death count had been building for years:

By August 2023, the tally for that year alone had already crossed 23. Two more deaths on a single day in late August — within four hours of each other — finally triggered emergency administrative action.

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The System Inside the City

An investigative report in The Indian Express documented what life inside Kota's coaching machine looked like for the average student:

• 14-hour daily schedules — morning sessions, afternoon classes, evening tests, night study halls.
• Public ranking boards — test scores posted on digital notice boards outside classrooms, visible to all students and institute staff. A student who slipped from the top batch to the ordinary batch would find out by reading a list on a wall.
• "Star batches" and "ordinary batches" — coaching institutes sort students by test performance into tiered sections, a visible hierarchy that students described as deeply humiliating.
• No guaranteed refunds — families who had paid ₹1,50,000 to ₹3,00,000 in annual fees faced major financial losses if their child needed to drop out.
• Isolation — most students knew almost no one in the city and reported going weeks without speaking to their parents about how they were actually coping.

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The Administration's Response

After the August deaths, the Kota District Collector issued a set of binding safety mandates that became nationally known:

1. Spring-loaded ceiling fans: All hostels were ordered to install fans equipped with spring mechanisms that disconnect under loads above 20 kg. Any hostel found non-compliant faced immediate sealing.
2. Mandatory weekly off: One full day per week was to be kept free from classes and tests.
3. Sunday test ban: Routine competitive tests on Sundays were prohibited.
4. "Dinner with Collector": A monthly open grievance session where distressed students could speak directly to the District Collector.
5. Biometric hostel tracking: Attendance and room-entry logs at hostels were to be digitally maintained.

The Rajasthan High Court took suo motu cognisance of the deaths, directing the state to enact the Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill — legislation that had been in draft for years without being passed.

By 2024, with 2,500 hostel wardens trained as mental health first-aiders and 1,200 distressed students identified through proactive outreach, the death count fell to 16.

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What the Numbers Don't Capture

Each of the 26 students in 2023 was a teenager who had left home — often from a family that had borrowed money, sold land, or gone without to fund a year or two in Kota. The average family spends ₹5,00,000 to ₹10,00,000 on a two-year Kota preparation cycle, including coaching fees, accommodation, and living expenses.

When a student begins to fail — or simply begins to feel that they cannot reach the score their family needs them to reach — they carry that weight inside a hostel room, often alone, often hundreds of kilometres from home.

The spring-loaded fans are a practical intervention. They are not a solution to any of this.

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Timeline: INC-2023-RJ-KOTA-0003

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Sources & Further Reading

1. "Kota District Administration Mandates Spring-Loaded Anti-Suicide Fans Across Hostels" — NDTV, 18 August 2023. ndtv.com
2. "High Pressure, Routine Tests, Shame Batches: Inside Kota's Dark Coaching Engine" — The Indian Express, 4 September 2023. indianexpress.com
3. "Kota Student Suicides Drop by Nearly 40% in 2024 Following Safety Audits" — The Hindu, 30 December 2024. thehindu.com
4. iCall: 9152987821 | Vandrevala Foundation: 1860-2662-345 (24-hour helpline)