Suicide cases of young teenagers and adults has been increasing in India. There have been numerous reasons that trigger youths to give up their lives. Time and again we have seen that child sexual abuse is unfortunately a common problem and has been consistently associated with suicidal behaviour. It takes a lot of time for a child to first understand what happened, to find someone to talk about the situation without any fear and to overcome with it. But sadly, not everyone can deal with it and may go through depression or even commit suicide later in life. Much like a recent incident where a 21-year-old student pursuing Master of Science (MSc) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi allegedly committed suicide at his hostel room on March 13.

The student who hailed from Hooghly in West Bengal was in his first year of MSc studying at the prestigious institution. The Police officials were informed about the death in the early morning on the same day, when a roommate found the youth hanging from the ceiling fan. He left a suicide note on a table beside his bed which was written in Bengali. The one-page letter was found by the Police which revealed that he was suffering from depression for being sexually abused since he was a child.

TOI reported that the adult’s brother told the cops that he tried to attempt suicide on April 10 by consuming sleeping pills. He was immediately admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi after which his brother took him to his apartment. On April 13, he dropped the 21-year-old back to his campus hostel. The Police will register an FIR under sections of unnatural sexual assault and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) based on the suicide note and will send it to the Police. The body was sent for a post-mortem at Safdarjung Hospital and later handed over to his family.

His family members have told the police that he has completed his graduation from a well-known university in Kolkata and enrolled in IIT, Delhi just two months back to pursue his masters. And that he never complained of being sexually assaulted ever when he was in Kolkata; neither shown any signs of depression. The suicide note has been sent for forensic analysis. Research states that on an average, children are abused sexually before age 9. It is hard to curb such cases and deaths, but we should try and focus more to create a comfortable environment for the children to avoid such circumstances.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 02:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).