11-yr-old jumps to death in Telangana after parents send him for IIT coaching

india

Updated: Jul 14, 2017 09:57 IST

An 11-year-old student committed suicide by jumping off the second floor of his school building in Karimnagar district of Telangana ostensibly after failing to cope with parental pressure to study IIT foundation course.

Police said Gurram Srikar Reddy, a student of Class 7 at Siddhartha High School in Karimnagar town, took the extreme step on Thursday morning.

“Srikar, along with his classmates, went to his classroom in the second floor of the building. But within no time, he came out into the corridor and suddenly jumped from the floor, resulting in grievous injuries. He was immediately rushed to a local corporate hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” Karimnagar one-town inspector Srinivasa Rao said.

Srikar was the only son of G Shashidhar Reddy and Sharada, from Gollapalli village of Dharmaram block of neighbouring Peddapalli district. They said they wanted to give their son the best education.

Reddy, a farmer, told the police that he had admitted his son into the IIT foundation course being offered by the school with a hope that the boy would become a top engineer.

“However, Srikar was not showing interest in studies and was mentally disturbed. But we never expected that he would commit suicide,” Reddy said.

Initially, the parents attributed Srikar’s suicide to the negligence of the school management. But later changed their version in the complaint lodged with the police stating that their son was mentally disturbed.

However, students unions in Karimnagar town staged a dharna in front of the government hospital, where the body was shifted for post mortem, and demanded action against the school management.

This is the second such incident in Telangana this week. On Wednesday, a 12-year-old Muslim boy Fareeduddin allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room at the Telangana Minority Welfare Residential School at Jeedimetla on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

He was also said to be disinterested in studies.

Every hour one student commits suicide in India, according to 2015 data (the latest available) from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

According to a 2012 Lancet report India has one of the world’s highest suicide rates for youth aged 15 to 29.