It seems alarming that in recent years the youth are found prone to committing or attempting to suicide and the number of suicidal occurrences is on the rise over the years. The case is more severe among the age group of 18 to 30 in the country. Especially, tertiary level students are found to be in high risk and in comparison with the male youth, females are more vulnerable.

It is also evident that the number of victims committing suicide is more in public universities than other educational institutions. For example, recently Imam Hossain, a student of Dhaka University, committed suicide after posting a status on Facebook but it was not reported why he had committed suicide.

According to data, only in 2017, 19 students committed suicide, of them nine were from Dhaka University, seven from Islamic University and the rest three from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Khulna University.

In our country committing and attempting to suicide is not a new issue. In the past it was highly intended by the illiterate community confined to superstitions, but now the educated ones are not exemption from this menace.

The frequent committing of suicide by students has been criticized amid the country and worries are pervading widely among the nation. It raises a pertinent question: despite living amid the plenty of digital supports, why students are choosing the path to self-destruction and why the concerned authorities are making dilly-dally to find a remedial step to the problem?

The World Health Organization reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death of people in the world whose age ranges from 15 to 29 years. It reveals that about 800,000 people die by suicide every year. Furthermore, against each suicide, there are more than 20 suicide attempts. The report also claims that every out of five young people three are mentally vulnerable which is really shocking. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased suicide cases in Bangladesh as it is bitterly leading people to self-destructive temptations out of fear and uncertainty. According to WHO, approximately 15 million people are suffering from various mental illnesses in Bangladesh. Not in Bangladesh but across the world the case of growing mania to suicide has increased significantly amid the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis.

Experts think that the rise of suicide among the youth is occurring for many reasons such as unrequited love, break-ups, academic pressure, family pressure, unemployment and frustration. These issues have far reaching consequences leading ones towards committing suicide.

On top of that different survey findings show that the youth are the greatest in number in using online platforms in the country and gradually they are being isolated from the real touch of world. This is exposing them more and more to the virtual world. It is happening due to their overwhelming confinement to online platforms.

They are found behaving in artificial taste leading to the verge of their loss of moral values which is accelerating the tendency to choose the path of self-destruction. The situation is like that they start developing friendship online and breaking up that online and this tendency deters them to face the real world.

Similarly, unemployment and frustration are the two issues allied with each other as students approaching the end of their academic career in the university are more vulnerable to suicidal behaviour out of merely their fear to face the crisis of unemployment.

Reports demonstrate that in 2019, the youth unemployment rate was 11.9 per cent that would be likely to be double in 2020 as the number of new job creation has declined drastically amid the pandemic. Financial insolvency and poor mental health conditions may be mostly among the major causes of committing suicides. 

In the educational institutions, initiatives to support students mentally are hardly seen despite many universities are equipped with students counseling centers. Above all, mental health services in the country are still scanty.

As the mania of the youth to embrace suicide has increased considerably, there is no alternative to imbuing the students with moral values and they should be taught that committing suicide is strictly prohibited in all religions. Family support can act best to protect them against depression and promote self-respect in every individual.

Our society should help students understand that apart from doing official jobs they have enormous scopes to be self-reliant, so no need to be indulged in frustration.

As every public university owns a counseling center for students, so it would be responsibility of the authority to ensure easy access of students there. More importantly, the government should take policies to provide increasing facility on mental health services to all educational institutions considering the rise of this malady as a priority.

The sociologist Emil Durkheim says that suicides are imitative, particularly among young people. So let’s halt this menace now by any means.

The writer teaches at Prime University. Email: [email protected]