The city of Bangalore set a new level in suicides with 10 people — including three homemakers, two high school students and a scientist — ending their life in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday.
While seven of them committed suicide on Friday, the others were found dead on Saturday. This apart, nine others committed suicide from Monday to Thursday in separate incidents. There is, however, no plausible reason adduced for this spurt in suicides, although it is quite common for an increase in suicides when examination results are declared.
Bangalore already has a dubious distinction of being the “suicide capital of India” with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recording a high number of suicides in the city since the last few years.
Four out of the ten suicides have been reported from Sriramapuram, one of the oldest residential localities of Bangalore. Of the two high school students, both girls, the fear of pursuing tenth standard, apparently prompted one to end her life. A 36-year-old scientist with a private company, who had separated from his wife six months ago, ended his life owing to domestic issues.
Though health issues and domestic disputes were found to be the cause for most of the suicides reported on Friday and Saturday, a senior police officer said there was no “particular pattern” in the suicides occurring in the city over the two days.
Even though the officer said the number of suicides occasionally went up to seven, 10 suicides over 24 hours in the city was rare. He attributed the increasing suicides in Bangalore to “fast pace of life and its pressures”.
Rani Shetty, counsellor at Parihar that runs the help lines at the Police Commissioner’s office said there was a need to identify the root causes of suicidal tendencies.
