Bengaluru: An eight-year-old girl committed suicide by settling herself on fire on Tuesday. In a suicide note which she left behind for her mother, the girl held herself responsible for taking the extreme step.
The minor's mother is inconsolable. She lost her husband six years ago and now has to come to terms with her daughter's death. The family cannot understand the reason behind the minor taking her life by setting herself on fire.
"We heard she doused herself with kerosene and killed herself...She was the only family her mother had... they have lived here together," said the minor's neighbour.
The girl was studying in the third standard of a Bengaluru school. But she had been skipping school for the last 20 days, something her mother only discovered in her suicide note. In the note, the girl held herself responsible for her own death.
"She has left behind a suicide note in broken language. She mentioned she was sad, we are yet to ascertain what led such a young girl to commit suicide. This is a the first case I have come to know in Bengaluru involving a young child, a child less than ten years old," said Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru.
"In the younger people, degree of stresses has progressively increased...Competitiveness, pressure to perform by family is increasing...Also, the amount of time for free play has been getting less. Tuition and lack of even play fields and lack of company," said BN Gangadhar, psychiatrist.
Psychiatrists say that about 10 years ago, the maximum suicides were reported among those over 25 years old. But over the last 10 years, increasingly it is teenagers of the 15 to 17 years who are taking their lives. Suicides are also reported among those under ten years but these have been mostly parents who have entered into a suicide pact with their children and all members of the family kill themselves. That makes this incident stand out all the more.
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