Anxiety, more time to study for 40k students stranded in Kota
KOTA: Rashi Todani, 19, one of the around 40,000 students stranded in the coaching hub of Kota, sees a silver lining to the nationwide lockdown.
“Though I am away from my parents, I am focusing on my studies,” says Todani, a resident of West Bengal’s Raniganj who is preparing for the National Medical Entrance Examination.
Not everyone feels the same way.
Manavi Soni, 17, a Madhya Pradesh resident who stays in the same paying guest accommodation as Todani, wants to return home at the earliest and be with her family “in this hour of crisis”.
The responses of Todani and Soni book-end the feelings of students in this bustling Rajasthan city, which, like the entire country, has suddenly fallen silent in the wake of the 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Some are anxious about the well-being of their families. Others have calmed down after the initial panic and are using the time at their disposal to sharpen their preparation for the competitive exams that stand postponed for now.
At peak season, Kota is home to 150,000 students, with private coaching centres dotting the streets that are usually teeming with engineering and medical school aspirants, according to Nidhi Prajapati, a teacher of peace studies in a private college in the city who has studied the Kota phenomenon.
Currently, around 40,000 students are stuck in the city, surviving on free food packets provided by hostel owners, philanthropic organisations and the institutes, says Naveen Maheshwari, the director of a coaching centre.
Students come to the city, which also finds itself in the news regularly for stress-related suicides, because the institutes here have acquired a reputation for prepping students for the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IITJEE) and NEET exams, which usually take place in April-May. This year, all exams have been indefinitely postponed.
“The coaching institutes are closed and we cannot go home. There’s no option but to study, not a bad option. The JEE-Mains have been postponed and we get more time to study for it,” says Vishwendra Pratap Singh, an 18-year-old from Lucknow.
“The messes and roadside eateries are closed, but the coaching institutes, hostels and social
THE 40,000 STUDENTS STUCK IN THE CITY ARE SURVIVING ON FREE FOOD PACKETS PROVIDED BY HOSTEL OWNERS, NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS AND THE INSTITUTES
organisations provide free food,” he says.
Several coaching institutes have come to the aid of those stranded, distributing food packets. “Students in Kota are following the lockdown strictly, confining themselves in their hostels and PGs. We are taking care of their needs,” adds Maheshwari. He and the people who run other coaching institutes have urged hostels not to charge rent from students till the lockdown is over.
Hostels too are looking after the students and organising food for them, says Vishwanath Sharma, the former president of a body of hostel owners. The association is also regularly sanitising the hostels. “I don’t have any financial crunch. Even if someone is lacking money to buy an essential, hostel owners are helping them,” says 18-year-old Stuti Agarwal, a Patna resident preparing for NEET.
Coaching institutes are making the best of the digital tools they already have, conducting online classes for students.
But for 18-year-old Mohammad Waseem, all these mean nothing. He wants to go back home to Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly.
“I stay in a PG. The owners went to Uttar Pradesh for a wedding and got stranded there due to the lockdown. Now, I am left to fend for myself,” he says.
District collector Om Kasera has advises students not to venture out. “So students are not allowed to return to their homes,” he said.