Moved by the tragic case of a 17-year- old IIT aspirant who committed suicide a day after clearing her exam, the Kota district collector has written an emotional letter to parents of over 1.50 lakh students in coaching institutes here, asking them not to force their expectations on the children.
The five-page letter by Collector Ravi Kumar Surpur has been dispatched to the coaching institutes in the city and will be forwarded to the parents after translation into Hindi and other regional languages. Referring to suicides, the district collector wrote that for all of them death was a much peaceful and effortless action than going through the dilemma of artificially doing what their parents wanted them to do. “Your solacing words of comfort, asking them to give their best and forget the results could have been the blade of grass” that would have saved precious lives, he wrote, adding, instead, what they got were threats to perform even better.
“Should parents go the children’s immature way? Not necessarily.” He has made an emotional appeal, asking parents “not to force their expectations and dreams on their children” and “let them do what they want and are able to do”. He has also asked the parents and children to look beyond engineering and medicine for their career.