Dhaka: A female student of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has reportedly committed suicide in her residential room at Bir Protik Taramon Bibi Hall of the university. Deceased Takia Tasnim was a first-year student of the Geography and Environment Department. Eyewitnesses said Takia hanged herself from the ceiling fan in her room at 5:30 am following a quarrel with her boyfriend. Later, she was rescued and taken to the University's medical center where the on-duty doctors declared her dead. Her classmates said that Takia committed suicide keeping her boyfriend on a video call while quarrelling. Immediately, her boyfriend called her classmates and asked them to rush to the room and break the door to rescue her. But they failed to break the door in time. After breaking down the door, she was found hanging from the fan.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, three hundred and ten people committed suicide in the country in 2024. Among those, teenagers are on the top, accounting for 65.7 percent of the total suicides. This information was revealed in a survey on suicide incidents in the country in 2024 conducted by the Aachal Foundation. The foundation said it conducted the survey based on information published in 105 newspapers in the country. The survey shows that 310 people committed suicide in the country last year. The number of suicides was 532 in 2022 and 513 in 2023. They believe that few suicide incidents were reported in media in 2024 due to political unrest.
The survey data indicates that the highest number of suicides last year were committed by people aged 13-19, which accounted for 65.7 percent of the total suicides. The lowest number of suicides were committed by people aged 26-30 as women accounted for 61 percent of total suicides. This suggests that women are more prone to suicide, and female students are at higher risk, indicating a need for more mental health-related help.
According to the survey, the tendency to commit suicide among secondary school students is high, with this rate being more than 46 percent. Higher secondary level students are at the second position, and the trend of suicide is increasing among undergraduate students. The Aachal Foundation stated that the trend of suicide among school-going students is also rising, with 49.4 percent of suicides committed by school students in 2024. Due to uncontrolled emotions and relatively weak mental stability, they easily suffer from depression. Additionally, the number of suicides among college students in 2024 is also significant.
The survey highlighted that the highest number of suicides occurred in the Dhaka division last year, which is 29 percent, followed by Khulna and Chittagong divisions. The lowest number occurred in the Sylhet division. Professor Jamal Uddin of the Statistics Department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) emphasized that students have little understanding of mental health and are not even aware of the issue. He called for providing mental health services at the university level and training some teachers at the school and college levels on mental health services. He also urged parents to pay attention to their children's mental health.