In two congested lanes of Sikar, a growing industry

According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), 149 students from Sikar scored over 700 out of 720 marks, nearly double of Kota (74 students).

An analysis of the 2024 results shows that of the 50 centres with the highest percentage of candidates scoring above 650, 37 are located in Sikar district. Aspirants have a chance of securing admission in government medical colleges if they score over 650.

(Graphic by Angshuman Maity)

Local institutes say Sikar has been outperforming Kota in NEET for the past few years. In the 2023 exam, 23 from Sikar were among the top 1,000 rank holders; Kota had 13. While Kota’s share swelled to 35 this year, it was surpassed by Sikar’s 55 students. Besides Sikar, even Kottayam, Kerala, has joined this elite club.

While things are looking grim in Kota, which has reported a dip of nearly 40% in admissions this year, business in Sikar is booming.

A NEET aspirant from Maharashtra’s Nashik, who scored 88% in his Class 10 board exams, says he chose to study in Sikar after consultations with his Kota-based relatives. Sitting in the waiting area of his institute — where the staff is speaking to his parents before processing his sick-day request so he can return to his single-occupancy room — he says, “My family was concerned due to reports on Kota — student suicides, the pressure and overcrowding. So I moved to Sikar in April. This year’s results from Sikar have given me hope. ”

(Graphic by Angshuman Maity)

While the teenager has adjusted to the city and his study schedule, he is yet to take to the “hostel food and excessive heat”. He adds, “Though my teachers are good, my class has nearly 100 students. My seat is at the back, which affects my learning at times.”

Despite its success, Sikar’s coaching industry is confined to 15 centres located in two congested adjacent lanes — Piprali and Nawalgarh roads. Unlike Kota, which draws students from across the country, Sikar’s aspirant base is largely from Rajasthan and Haryana. Of late, there have been a few students from western Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even the Northeast.

In Sikar today, havelis and houses coexist with institutes, a smattering of flyovers, cafes, mid-sized shopping centres, and car and bike showrooms. “This is the result of the coaching boom, which has given a fillip to local businesses,” says Pradeep Sharma, who owns a restaurant on Piprali Road.

Given Sikar’s newfound popularity, a growing business is of paying guest (PG) accommodations and hostels that charge as low as Rs 3,000 for a shared room and Rs 10,000 for a single room with an air conditioner. Many parents, especially mothers, stay in Sikar while their children study. Though Sikar already has around 500 hostels, with up-and-coming constructions each day, locals say it is still not like Kota “where the entire city is converted into multi-floor hostels”.

Many parents, especially mothers, stay in Sikar while their children study. (Photo: Parul Kulshrestha)

The congested Piprali Road, which is just wide enough for a single car to pass through at a given time, resembles any another small-town residential colony. At one end of this street stands one of the 11 centres of Gurukripa Coaching Institute, one of the largest in city.

The façade of the four-storey building belies the swanky reception-cum-waiting area — beige floor tiles that mimic Italian marble, chrome waiting chairs and a backlit sign bearing the centre’s name in rose gold. Among those waiting there is Deepak Parihar, 53, from Churu, Rajasthan.

“I am here to help my niece with her admission formalities. She has just cleared her Class 10 and wants to prepare for NEET. We chose Sikar over Kota since it is closer home and did much better this year,” says Parihar.

An employee at Gurukripa, which is coaching more than 30,000 aspirants this year, claims that over 1,800 of their students “scored enough marks to get a government medical college seat this year”. Besides Gurukripa, which has one centre dedicated solely to JEE preparations, Matrix, CLC and Prince are the other big names run by locals in Sikar. Even national brands like Physics Wallah, Unacademy, Aakash Institute and ALLEN Career Institute, have a presence here. But save for ALLEN, which arrived here three years ago, student intake at the others is around 1,000 students per centre.

At one end of this street stands one of the 11 centres of Gurukripa Coaching Institute, one of the largest in city. (Photo: Parul Kulshrestha)

While Sikar hit headlines this year, it had started to come into its own long before the 2024 results. In fact, before the 2000 coaching boom, Sikar’s population was less than Kota’s annual student enrolment of 2.5 lakh. In 1996, Sikar’s first coaching centre, Career Line Coaching, opened its doors. While it is still around, many of its former teachers have opened their own institutes, Gurukripa being one of them.

Despite a lower student turnout when compared to Kota — Sikar institutes have around 1 lakh aspirants — the annual fee of Rs 1 lakh is nearly the same. An official says it’s not uncommon for institutes in Kota and Sikar to “poach” each other’s faculty. Like Kota, the official says, Sikar’s institutes typically hire IIT students or teachers as faculty. “In Sikar, even the founders take daily classes,” says an institute employee.

But unlike Kota, all major coaching centres in Sikar have hostels. Piyush Sunda of Prince Coaching says hostels make it easier for them to “monitor” students directly. “To keep students off social media, we don’t allow them to use phones in our hostels, except to call home.”

Yet, the academic pressure remains. Nistha Sharma, a Sikar resident preparing for JEE, says, “There are over 100 students in each class. Institutes divide students into classes based on test scores, which means all toppers are in one class. This creates unnecessary pressure but we expect to clear the exam if we study hard.”

In spite of its impressive show, Sikar’s NEET accolades were marred by allegations of irregular conduct of the exam, including cheating, by its coaching centres. Pradeep Budaniya, 55, one of Gurukripa founders, dismisses the allegations: “These accusations were made due to Sikar’s high score. Our students did well because of their hard work.”

While other coaching owners reiterate that “no Sikar institute was involved in cheating”, they are thankful for even the “bad publicity”. The media reports, they say, will mean a higher student turnout in 2025 now that Sikar is no longer in Kota’s NEET-JEE shadow.

But the success comes with a lingering fear. According to Sikar Police, 14 students died by suicide here between 2021 and June 2024 due to “academic pressure”.

Collector Qummer Choudhary admits that the administration is “concerned” about the safety of the students. “Our district committee meets monthly to discuss the welfare of students. I visit hostels and meet hostel owners to make them aware of students’ problems. Although the issues in Sikar are not as extreme as the ones in Kota, we keep trying to ensure it does not become another Kota.”