A positive step towards the avoidance of suicides among the students with the aim of becoming doctors and engineers was taken by the hostel association and the district administration of Kota, 6 years ago. In order to avert suicides, a ‘hanging fan device’ was installed in every ceiling fan. As a result, the lives of more than 50 students have been saved till now. Some were also saved just in the nick of time because of the alerts given out by the device on the right time.
According Naveen Mittal, President, Kota Hostel Association, there are around 3500 small and big hostels all around Kota, and in more than 1.5 lakh rooms, live around 2 lakh students. The Hostel Association has made it compulsory for every hostel to have hanging fan devices, and their monitoring is to be done by the hostel operators.
As per Dr Mithlesh Khinchi, Associate Professor, Psychology, Medical College, Kota, students take extreme steps like committing suicide because of the stress which comes along their studies, and positive steps to stop them are required to be taken, because suicides are committed in a momentary surge, and it is possible that after proper counselling, students do not take such a step.
The hostel association had started installing the devices in 2016, and the device’s demo was shown in Kota by the company from Bengaluru, before which, the company had already installed the device in the AIIMS and IIT hostels. The district administration then conducted a meeting with the hostel association and coaching institutes, and made the device compulsory, which created positive results.
Shubham Agarwal, President, Chambal Hostel Association, said that the device is made by a Bengaluru-based company and costs 200-300 rupees. The device is like a spring which is fitted in the ceiling fan, and with a minimum of 40 KGs of weight being put on it, the fan gets pulled down, and the individual’s feet get touched to the ground. The incident’s information is received by the one monitoring the device as a siren rings as well.
Shubham added that while the hostel association has made it compulsory, some hostels still do not have them, and hence, the administration is required to monitor the situation.
