A 13-year-old student of Class VIII allegedly died by suicide in Ankal in Bengaluru after she was fined. $20 for not completing her schoolwork. Police said the student left behind a note detailing the circumstances that allegedly prompted her to take the extreme step.
According to the police, the student claimed in the note that the teacher punished her for not completing her homework and asked her to pay a fine of $20. She also claimed that she was threatened with issuance of Transfer Certificate (TC), news agency ANI reported.
In the alleged note, the student said that the alleged insult and “harassment” left her emotionally disturbed, which eventually prompted her to take the extreme step.
Read also: ‘Intimidation’, ‘No help from teachers’: Shocking CCTV clip of alleged suicide of Class 4 student in Jaipur
The student’s family accused the school’s teaching staff of molesting the child and demanded action against those responsible.
NDTV quoted the girl’s mother as saying: “It seems like the teachers were torturing her. I don’t know their names. She missed school for a day. She didn’t tell anyone what she went through at school. She could have told her sister, but I wasn’t aware of that.”
Suryanagar police registered a case of unnatural death and launched an investigation into the allegations. Further investigations are underway.
14,488 student deaths recorded in 2024
The number of student suicides in India rose to a record high of 14,488 in 2024, registering a 4.3% rise from 13,892 in 2023, even as the country’s total suicides fell marginally by 0.4% from 1,71,418 to 1,70,746 during the same period, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released in May.
While total suicides in 2024 rose 11.6% over five years, from 153,052 in 2020, and increased 27.8% over the past decade from 133,623 in 2015, student suicides have grown at a much steeper pace, rising 15.7% in five years from 12,526 in 2020 and 62.2% over 10 years of. 8,934 in 2015.
115,850 students died by suicide between 2015 and 2024.
The proportion of student suicides in India’s total suicide cases has also risen over the years.
According to the NCRB report, student suicides accounted for 8.5% of the total 170,746 suicides recorded in 2024, up from 8.1% of 171,418 cases in 2023. Student suicides were 8.2% of 153,052 suicides in 2020, and 6.7% of 1,33,623 cases in 2015.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides can be prevented. Some of the major helpline numbers for suicide prevention in India are 011-23389090 from Soumyatri (Delhi based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai based).
