Mangaluru: Increasing student suicides spark demo; Dist Admin’s intervention sought

Mangaluru, Oct 7: In order to exert pressure on the district administration and college managements to take the recent suicide of students seriously and initiate measures to prevent such incidents, the activists of All College Students’ Association staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Saturday.

The protest follows three cases of suicide of students in Dakshina Kannada between September 13 and September 30. While 17-year-old Vinuta reportedly hanged herself in the hostel room in Alva’s Pre-University College in Moodbidri on September 13, 17-year-old Nevil Fernandes from Expert Pre-University College, Kodialbail, allegedly hanged himself in his house at Urva on September 24. The 20-year-old BE student Sharath Babu from Srinivasa Engineering College reportedly hanged himself in his room at Valachil on September 30.

Addressing students, the association’s pre-university wing district president Nihal Rai said it was distressing to see students ending their life. All the three who allegedly ended their life are from outside Dakshina Kannada. The district administration should intervene in this issue by making the college managements to take steps to prevent such incidents.

Highlighting the death of Fernandes in the memorandum addressed to the Chief Secretary, the association alleged that he took the extreme step because of harassment by the college management, the principal, and a teacher. The college had humiliated the student by displaying his photograph in the computer board, it alleged.