Published by Bangla Tribune | December 4, 2018.(link Here)

A class IX student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College committed suicide on Monday allegedly due to humiliation by her teachers. The deceased, Aritri Adhikari, 16, a student of Viqarunnisa’s Baily Road branch committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan using her scarf. Aritri sat for Social Science examination in her school’s yearly examination when the teachers seized her mobile phone allegedly for copying answers from the mobile phone. The teachers asked her to go to the school on Monday along with her parents.
On Monday, when her parents went to the school, they were kept waiting for over an hour at the gate of her school. Later, they were allowed to meet the vice-principal of the school who allegedly insulted them, asked them to go out and to take her transfer certificate from the school on the following day.
Subsequently, when they went to the principal’s room where they were again insulted in the presence of a school managing committee member.
When her parents returned to their residence, they found Aritri hanging from a ceiling fan.
Her father alleged that his daughter committed suicide as she could not endure the insult of his parents in her presence by the teachers. Aritri’s parents lost their bearings after the tragic demise of their loving daughter. Her dear friends broke down when they saw Aritri’s dead body.
What law says about suicide?
Suicide is defined as death caused by self-injuring behaviour with an intention to die as a result. Suicide attempts, on the other hand, are non-fatal, self-inflicted, potentially injurious, intention to die as a result of such behaviour.
A suicide attempt may or may not result in injury or death. While a person who has committed suicide, he is beyond the reach of the law, but it’s a punishable offense if his attempt fails.
Penal Code of Bangladesh 306 states that if any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Attempt to commit suicide
Section 309 states that whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offense, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term, which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
Our reluctance to fight back leads to suicidal tendencies. Life is beautiful and precious and is not something which should be ended for good grades, job or anything. No reason can ever justify ending a precious life.
Parental pressure to achieve a good grade in exams can lead the child into a labyrinth which can affect a child’s mental health. Being bullied by classmates can act as a trigger. The competition of winning in every dimension takes a toll on the mental health as well as the physical health of our children. Such depression certainly leads to suicide in several cases. Children are the most precious things on earth what the parents have. Child loss is a grief that lasts a lifetime. The bleeding never stops and there is no moving on. There will always be a missing space in the lives of bereaved parents and families. Time does not make the space less empty. Mental health issues are still a closed room topic for many of us which throw the victim into more darkness leading to suicide. Our education system needs to identify the loopholes which lead to these tragic incidents.
Miti Sanjana is a Barrister-at-law from Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, an Advocate of Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and an activist.