Class VI girl ends life after tiff over tiffin sharing

MP | 2017-04-18 | Kolkata: In a tragic incident, a 11-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of a room in her house at Behala following a dispute over sharing of tiffin with her "best friend" in school. The incident took place on Monday night.

Police said the victim Srestha Dey was a Class VI student of Jodhpur Girls' High School. A suicide note was found inside a book in her room. After going through the suicide note, investigating officers suspect that the girl had some dispute with a friend and committed suicide.

On Monday night, the victim's family members found her room locked from the inside. Srestha was not responding despite repeated knocks on the door. The family members broke open the door and found her hanging from the ceiling fan. Police from Parnashree police station went to the spot and brought down the body and sent it for an autopsy.

A police officer said Srestha, who was a monitor of her class, wrote in the suicide note: "I am leaving the world for my best friend. I was being betrayed by everyone and it will be good for everyone if I quit."

In the suicide note, the victim also urged her parents to stay in good health and regretted that she would not be able to be present at her elder sister's wedding.

The police initiated a probe in this connection and investigating officers are tallying her handwriting with the one of the suicide note.

The girl was a good student and was also good in co-curricular activities like painting and dance. Her mother told the police that her girl didn't disclose the entire incident that took place in the school but said that her friends had not allowed Srestha to stand with them while eating tiffin.

It is learnt that the school authorities have decided to suspend classes of Class VI for the next few days and will be holding meeting along with the parents of other students of the class on Monday.

Calling the incident "most unfortunate", psychologists felt that parents are responsible for such low frustration level of children and they should learn how to expand it.

Ratnabali Roy, noted mental health activist said it was most unfortunate that the parents are giving only protection to their children and not getting them acquainted  to face the challenges of the world. 

"Parents do not bring up their kids properly. By giving gifts and giving them protection they are actually doing more harm than good. The children leave in a dream world and are unable to face the actual physical world," said Roy.

Children should be taught that quarrels with friends are quite natural. "But this does not mean rejection of the individual. It means temporary rejection of an idea at that particular point of time," she said adding: "Parents should take parenting seriously." Roy said there should be national suicide policy and "lawmakers should realise that suicidal tendencies among children has gone up alarmingly."