Marriage, money, death – students want exam in Prayagraj’s ‘Kota’ as an election issue in UP

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TeaThere is a mini-quota inside the Katra of Prayagraj. Lakhs of students visit coaching centers here for years to prepare for exams for jobs like sub-inspector in UP Police, UPPSC, Banking, Railway, SSC and school teachers. Unlike Kota Factory of Rajasthan, Prayagraj mostly caters to candidates from poor, rural and semi-rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.

In fact, ‘aspirant’ is the first name identifier that the students here independently use to refer to themselves.

“aspirant” are preparing for government jobAbhishek Shukla, 26, of Mirzapur says while introducing himself. Having tea at a stall in front of Allahabad University’s Faculty of Science gate, Shukla says he has been preparing for Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) for the past four years. He lives in a locality named ‘Coaching Hub’.

Situated in Prayagraj city, formerly Allahabad’s Katra, the area spread over an area of ​​more than 7 square kilometres, is believed to accommodate 10 to 15 lakh candidates like Shukla. But something has changed in the Covid pandemic. There is now an extra dose of despair among the students here. This is a double burden. With job loss, financial crisis, families are pushing them even more to score in the exam.

,to jobis ethene. but double the pressure Gaya is from familyShukla says while sipping tea from a plastic cup.

For women candidates, it is a different type of pressure. After a doomed pandemic year, families have sent their daughters back to coaching centers in Prayagraj. But this time with an ultimatum. Is it now or marriage.

“Time Have given – come out in a year and show it. The marriage of the girls with me has been fixed,Aakriti Srivastava, 26, told ThePrint.

Srivastava hails from Maharajganj district near the Nepal border. He made two plans for his career.

“Plan A was to prepare for UPSC and Plan B was to appear in the rat race of SSC, Railways and other grade 2-3 exams,” she says standing outside her coaching centre. “I didn’t plan to stay focused on UPSC and try for other odd exams but since there is pressure from family, my focus has shifted. Now you have to become independent by securing any job. ,

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student back in katra

The local PG owner where the students live, the owner of the coaching center and the station in-charge of Karnalganj police station all say that around 70 per cent of the students have returned to Katra after the lockdown and the waves of Covid. They’re back to cramming into tiny 10x10ft rooms like sardines in tins, with roommates preparing for the same test. Most of them get pocket money of around Rs 4,000-7,000 every month.

Ajit Sonkar, president of the competition student body, told ThePrint, “It is an unorganized industry. There are no rules or case studies on this. But being the representative of the students here, I can say that around 10 to 15 lakh students were living here before the pandemic hit.”

Competition student organization was established in 2017 to take up the issue of Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination and result. Delay All-India. Later, this group became popular among coaching hubs across the country.

The congested lanes of Katra, which were deserted since the first lockdown was announced in 2020, are now taking hold. Big posters are also back, with pictures of toppers promising ‘guaranteed’ test results. New cheap food joints have popped up, while some old ones like Yadav Tea Stall and ‘Bhabiji Ki Rasoi’ have disappeared in the Covid-induced recession. Students can be seen coming to book stalls to buy second- and third-hand books.

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UP election and exam worries

The upcoming election is also on the mind of the students.

Suresh, one of the tea sellers in the area, says, “We now enjoy the conversation around elections. Students are burden but they are also hopeful that the government will declare some results Before the assembly elections.”

The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in early 2022. Candidates in Katra are hopeful that to woo young voters, the Yogi Adityanath government may push back some exams, announce results and new recruitments.

,If a student drinks tea outside continuously for 10 days, then there will be no money left for filling the form., says Sonkar. “We want the delay in exams to become an election issue. Now we are throwing darts in the dark as we do not know when the exam dates will be announced.

2018 results are Pending, Mandi Parishad Inspector Exam was conducted in 2018 but the score was never announced. The Gram Vikas Adhikari exam held in 2018 was canceled due to the cheating scandal.

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Read also: Do young Indian women work? Gujarat tops among single working women, lowest among married women

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Money, marriage and suicide

Most of the students in Katra have deadline, paucity of funds and extraordinary pressure to get the job.

Aakriti Srivastava says that though she comes from a middle-class household, it will take some time for her family business to come out of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. “Till then we have to adjust with whatever amount the family can manage,” she says.

Saumya Dwivedi, who came with Srivastava, is a resident of Prayagraj city. Though she doesn’t share the problems of the surrogate like Srivastava, she and the other women in the group share the same concerns.

,Let us go! Give some days to the marriage but the uncertainty is not over, Every fortnight there will be a suicide photo from the aspiring community on our WhatsApp groups. There is nothing more demoralizing than this,” she says. “Suicides shock thousands of people like me who are trying to shake off the grief from the second Covid wave when we lost someone in the family.”

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