195 suicides in Noida since January, numbers spiked after lockdown

NOIDA: A total of 195 people died of suicide in the city this year, and 74% of the cases were reported in the months following the announcement of the nationwide lockdown — from April to August.
In the first three days of this week, eight persons — six men and two women — killed themselves. The reasons, according to the police, ranged from job loss due to the lockdown to problems in personal relationships.

On August 6, Dharm Dutt Bhatt, 48, killed himself in his flat in Sector 82. Bhatt worked with an IT company, and in March, he was asked to leave. Upset over not being able to find another offer during the lockdown, he ended his life, said his wife who also filed a complaint at the Phase II police station against his former employer.
Among the recent cases, Jaiprakash Punwar, 32, an electrician, hanged himself inside a shoe-making company in J block of Sector 63 in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
In another case on Wednesday, 24-year-old Phoolsan Singh hanged himself in his rented accommodation in Habibpur village. A suicide note has been recovered from the spot in which Singh wrote that he was in love with a woman who cheated on him and so, he was ending his life, Ecotech III SHO Anita Chauhan told TOI.
Between January and March, 50 suicides were reported, with 16 in January, 19 in February and 15 in March, in the last week of which the lockdown was imposed. After that, from 24 suicides in April, the cases saw a steady growth, going from 31 in May to 34 in June. The upward trend dipped gently, and July and August recorded 30 and 26 cases, respectively, although remained much higher than the numbers reported in the first three months.
Cops say most of the persons committing suicides were upset because of loss of livelihood, or were entangled in family disputes. Some of them were suffering from depression for a long time.
The profile of the persons dying of suicide reflects their difficult settings — many of them were daily wagers and workers employed with the private companies who lost their jobs during the pandemic, a police officer said. He added that some others were white-collar executives with handsome packages but had their salaries suddenly reduced to half.
Additional DCP (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said that while couple conflicts and personal issues were cropping up, the lockdownled to uncertainty. "Financial situation of the families has worsened and those working in private firms are distressed. However, due to downsizing of the business, people are being sent back because employers, too, are unable to generate income. The overall socio-economic condition is responsible for the rise in suicides," he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, a 23-year-old woman jumped to death from the 10th floor of Jaypee Kosmos after a tiff over cake-cutting. On Tuesday night, a 42-year-old woman set herself ablaze in Khajoor Colony of Sector 45 after a fight with her husband.
The same night, a 30-year-old man, Arjun, hanged himself from a tree in Gejha village following an argument with his wife.
In the three cases reported on Monday, a man who lived in Sector 63 hanged himself from a fan in his room, another man in Dundahera village shot himself dead after a tiff with his wife, and a Shahberi resident who had consumed poison on August 28, died while he was being treated at Prakash hospital.