Mysuru: No smartphone for e-classes, girl commits suicide

MYSURU: A 15-year-old girl committed suicide by consuming poison in Chamarajanagar district’s Saagade village on Monday as her family could not buy her a smartphone.
Promoted to Class 10 in June, the girl was upset over missing online classes as she didn’t have a smart device. Police said the girl was studying in a local school.
According to villagers, the family was going through a rough patch.
“Her parents lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Her father was a tailor and mother worked as an assistant midday-meal cook in a local high school,” a police officer said. They are now working as daily wage labourers in the village.
“They had told us their daughter was asking for a smartphone to attend online classes. They had no fixed income and were not in a position to buy a new phone,” said Mahadevaswamy K, a member of Saagade gram panchayat.
“In their complaint, the parents said their daughter was disappointed as they could not buy her a smartphone. However, they had told her they would arrange a cellphone by this month-end, but she took the extreme step on Monday evening. We have registered a case of unnatural death,” district superintendent of police Divya Sara Thomas told TOI.
Police handed over the body to the family on Tuesday after conducting a post-mortem examination in the district hospital. However, officials in the department of public instruction (DPI) denied the girl committed suicide over not being able to attend online classes. “After I heard about the girl’s death, I contacted her teachers. They told me that she committed suicide due to personal reasons,” said ST Javaregowda, DDPI, Chamarajanagar.