316 suicide cases in Dhading in four years

Published On: June 28, 2019 04:00 AM NPT By: Sarita Shrestha

316 suicides in four years

DHADING, June 28: On June 23, Kali Mijar, 34, a member of Dhunibesi Municipality committed suicide by consuming a chemical fertilizer. Police are still investigating to find out the reason behind her suicide.

Similarly, on June 11, 13 years old Sunil Pariyar of Jwalamukhi Rural Municipality-4 was found hanging by a tree near his home. Police recovered a suicide note from the incident site. Then the police concluded that the child had committed suicide. However, the suicide note has not been publicized yet. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rupak Khadka informed Republica that the case is still under investigation.

On April 20, Menuka Neupane of Tripurasundari Rural Municipality-4 died after consuming poison. Her death has started a debate between her family members and in-laws on whether it was a suicide or a murder. However, the police are yet to find out the truth.

According to the details provided by the police, altogether nine people committed suicide between May 15 and June 15. These are just a few representative cases as every year hundreds of people in Dhading try to commit suicide due to various social and mental issues.

According to the records maintained by the District Police Office (DPO), the number of suicides in the district has been increasing every year. Police say the number of suicides may be even high as the dead bodies of many who commit suicides are cremated without informing the police. Over-ambitious nature of people, mental stress, polygamy, regret and poverty have been found to be the contributing factors to committing suicide. Raj Kumar Baidawar, chief of Dhading Police, informed Republica that 87 people have committed suicide in Dhading in the current fiscal year so far. Those committing suicides are mostly males. The details provided by the DPO, Dhading, shows 316 people committed suicide in Dhading in the last four years. In fiscal year 2015/16, the number of people committing suicide was 62 while it jumped to 75 in fiscal year 2016/17. Likewise, 92 people committed suicide in fiscal year 2017/18, according to DSP Baidawar. "The number is rising with each passing year," he said.

Rupak Khadka, information officer of the DPO, says that police try to conduct postmortems of all reported suicide cases but still some cases don't come to light. Despite being aware about the growing suicide rate in the district, no government and non-government organization or the local units have prioritized mental health and psychological counseling.