Woman, two daughters 'battling extreme poverty' allegedly kill themselves at home in Aligarh

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Bodies of a woman and her two teenage daughters were found in a house closed from inside in Islamnagar area in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh, police said on Thursday.

Initial investigation revealed that Nagina, 55-years-old and her daughters Bano, 19-years-old and Paaki, 17 years-old allegedly killed themselves by consuming poison on Wednesday night due to extreme financial stress.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani said neighbours told the police that Nagina's family had been battling extreme poverty after her husband died a few years ago. Nagina was suffering from protracted illness and was unable to afford treatment, Naithani said.

The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of their death, police added.

A total of 1,64,033 suicides were reported in the country during 2021 showing an increase of 7.2% in comparison to 2020 and the rate of suicides has increased by 6.2% during 2021 over 2020, official data reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) states.

The data estimates India's suicide rate to be 12, inferring that the country saw an average of 12 suicides per every 100,000 population -- approximately 1.65 lakh suicides in 2021. The reported rate varied greatly between states; from 39.2 in Sikkim to 0.7 in Bihar; although most states reported a rate higher than the national average of 12.

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Of the total suicides committed, 75 per cent of those were men, and 66 per cent of suicides occurred in younger people between 18 and 45 years old. The most commonly reported causes of suicide were family problems (33.2 percent) and 'illness' (18.6 percent), and daily wage earners consisted of 25 percent of individuals lost to suicide. 8 percent of all suicides were among students.

Majority of suicides were reported in Maharashtra (22,207) followed by 18,925 suicides in Tamil Nadu, 14,965 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, 13,500 suicides in West Bengal and 13,056 suicides in Karnataka accounting for 13.5%, 11.5%, 9.1%, 8.2% and 8.0% of total suicides respectively.

These 5 States together accounted for 50.4% of the total suicides reported in the country. The remaining 49.6% suicides were reported in the remaining 23 States and 8 UTs.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous State (16.9% share of country population) has reported comparatively lower percentage share of suicidal deaths, accounting for only 3.6% of the total suicides reported in the country. (With inputs from PTI)