For the 300,000 college students who flock to Kota yearly, this scorching, dusty metropolis within the Indian state of Rajasthan is a strain cooker of efficiency, the place 18 hours of examine a day is frequent and the place your examination marks are every part. Some will change into India’s subsequent era of medical doctors and engineers; however for others, it is going to break them.

Kota has change into recognized in latest many years as India’s “coaching capital”, the place nearly a dozen specialist institutes have sprung up providing intensive programs to organize college students for the extremely aggressive exams, both for drugs or engineering faculty. With 65% of India’s inhabitants of 1.4 billion folks under the age of 35 and extra younger folks pursuing increased training than anytime in its historical past, the stakes – and competitors – have by no means been increased.

This yr, greater than 2 million folks sat the doorway examination for medical faculty – recognized by the acronym Neet – competing for simply 140,000 locations, whereas greater than 1 million college students sat for the engineering examination within the hope of getting one of many 10,000 coveted locations on the prime expertise institutes, referred to as IITs.

For the a whole lot of hundreds of scholars finding out within the metropolis, largely between the ages of 17 and 20, maintaining with the curriculum usually means an eye-watering schedule. They work seven days every week and, with a view to sustain, many mentioned they began finding out at 4am earlier than attending six hours of courses, which accommodate round 300 college students. They have an examination each two weeks, and are all publicly ranked based on their marks. “I don’t have time for friends or socialising. My books are my friends,” mentioned Rani Kumari, 22, who’s finding out for her medical faculty examination.

“This is the most stressed city in all of India,” mentioned Shree Kumar Verma, 19, who’s making ready for his Neet examination on the Allen Career Institute, the biggest teaching college in Kota. “Everywhere you look, you can see the desperation of young people in this country. So many have this dream to be a doctor or an engineer and they will go to very intense hardship to get there. Being at Kota is either going to bring you success or totally break you down; it’s all or nothing here.”

Nowhere is that this need for achievement extra seen than within the metropolis’s Radha Krishna temple, the place hundreds of prayers are scribbled frantically on the partitions. “Dear god give me success”, “Krishna ji, please stay with me, please keep my parents happy … please help me crack Neet 2024” and “God teach me how to work very hard” are among the many messages written by college students. The temple priest Pandit Radhe Shyam mentioned he needed to whitewash the partitions each two weeks to make room for extra.

Such is Kota’s ubiquity that it has been heralded by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, as India’s “kashi [holy city] of education”, and the teaching trade right here is now price an estimated 120bn rupees (£1.2bn). “Toppers”, those that obtain the very best marks within the nation, are handled like celebrities, with their pictures plastered on huge billboards and awarded money prizes of 100,000 rupees by their respective schools, which compete fiercely to dominate the highest rankings.

Yet a darker facet has additionally emerged, one which has thrown a highlight on the gruelling tradition of intensive examination teaching in Kota and the heavy burdens – tutorial, familial and social – positioned on the scholars.

So far this yr, 27 college students finding out within the metropolis’s teaching faculties have killed themselves, the very best quantity on report. The downside has been deemed so unhealthy that some authorities ministers have known as for the teaching faculties to be banned. The matter was additionally raised in parliament and this month the Rajasthan state authorities launched a brand new set of tips in an effort to curb the excessive suicide fee. Ceiling followers, repeatedly utilized by college students to hold themselves, have been faraway from rooms. None of the institutes or their lecturers would communicate to the Guardian.

Yet whereas criticism has been directed on the teaching faculties, college students and psychiatrists within the metropolis say the best strain comes from households at house. Having a health care provider or an engineer within the household has lengthy been held in excessive esteem in India, and plenty of mother and father see Kota because the path to make this occur.

“I would say most of the mental health problems I see are related to toxic pressure from parents who tell their children, ‘You have to win at any cost.’ Success is often presented almost as a life or death option for these kids,” mentioned Dr Neena Vijayvargiya, a psychiatrist working in Kota.

“With many parents, there’s no acceptance, no room for failure, and so students connect their life, their feelings, their emotions, everything to their marks.”

In September, a 17-year-old woman from Jharkhand finding out for her medical faculty examination hanged herself in her bed room. According to police, her diary had been stuffed with pleas to depart. “We found that the girl often wrote in her notebook, ‘After I leave Kota and go back home, my troubles will come to an end. But I know that my mother will feel sad and disappointed if I leave,’” mentioned an officer on the case.

The teenager’s father, who requested to stay unnamed to guard his daughter’s id, acknowledged she had repeatedly requested to return house. “But in no situation did my wife want her to drop out of the Kota coaching school and return home,” he mentioned. “She told my daughter over the phone that we had decided to spend nearly 1m rupees on her education in Kota.”

While huge teaching college comparable to Allen emphasised that they had greater than 50 psychiatrists and counsellors on campus and a 24-hour pupil helpline, Vijayvargiya mentioned the stigma and misinformation related to psychological well being in India meant that the indicators of melancholy had been ceaselessly being dismissed by mother and father.

The few college students who did discover their technique to her personal clinic usually did so disguised in headscarves and sun shades to stop them being seen. Women are notably fearful that if they’re recognized to have visited a psychiatrist, it might harm their marriage prospects.

While Kota teaching faculties – with charges of 150,000 rupees a yr and extra month-to-month prices of about 30,000 rupees a month for lodging and meals – was the protect of the higher center courses, these within the decrease center courses and under are more and more making large private sacrifices so their kids can attend.

The greater teaching faculties have additionally expanded their operations to cities throughout India and have representatives who go into faculties to encourage mother and father to switch their kids to their institutes, to assist put together them for the exams from as younger as 11.

Kedar Korde, a farmer from a poor rural village in Hingoli, Maharashtra, final yr offered off his solely piece of land and moved his household to Kota, with a view to ship his two sons, aged 14 and 17, to Allen.

“My sons are my universe, I want to give them the best education possible, and that means Kota,” Korde mentioned. “I felt very sad selling off my land because it was the sole source of my family’s livelihood but it was a choice I had to make. Now my sons will not have the same life of misery as small farmers like me.”

He discovered a job working as a hostel safety guard, and his household of 4 lives in a single room, as his older son prepares for the medical faculty examination. Yet Korde’s wage continues to be not sufficient to cowl the prices, and so again house his father, Ramdas, is slowly additionally promoting off his land to contribute to fund the youngsters’ training.

“I dropped out of school in seventh grade so I sold off my farmland to fund my grandson’s education with no reluctance” mentioned Ramdas Korde, 69. “Frankly, it would be something like a miracle or a revolution in my village for them to come back as doctors or engineers.”

• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans could be contacted on freephone 116 123, or e mail jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you may name or textual content the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to attach with a disaster counsellor. In Australia, the disaster assist service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other worldwide helplines could be discovered at befrienders.org