Nearly 600 students in Bangladesh committed suicide in 2022: Report

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – A total of 585 students in Bangladesh committed suicide in 2022, according to a report that has been recently released in Dhaka.

Of them, 340 and 106 were school and college students, respectively, 85 were university students and 54 were from madrassahs or Islamic seminaries. The statistics were revealed by the youth-based Aachol Foundation. The survey was prepared based on reports in leading newspapers.

Researchers collected information from more than 150 national and local newspapers as well as online portals.

“Suicide… is gripping the youth with its lethal tentacles every passing day,” said the survey, “Suicidal Tendency among Students; Which Way to Look for the Solution?”

“The alarming number of suicides by the school and college-going students from the combined data prompts us to review the reasons behind the suicide cases,” it said.

The survey noted that the Dhaka division has the highest number of school and college students committing suicide, 23.77%, of eight in the country.

It is followed by the southern port city of Chattogram division at 17.27%.

According to gender-based analysis, more females committed suicide, 60.15% more than males.

Students between 13 and 19 years old are most likely to commit suicide and the number in that age group was 405 — 76.12%.

Among several reasons that emerged for suicide are being emotionally hurt, family conflict, depression, psychological problems, financial problems, rape or sexual harassment.

In some cases, the reasons behind the suicide were not known, said the survey.

To curb suicide and grow consciousness among students, the survey recommended opening Psychological First Aid Branches in educational institutions.