A 23-year-old youth whose father lost his job amid the Covid pandemic last year and whose mother had to start working as an ayah to sustain the family, allegedly stabbed himself to death at their Bansdroni home on the southern fringes of Kolkata on Tuesday night.
Police said Rabin Debnath, a resident of Pragati Park in Bansdroni, had been suffering from depression for several reasons, including his failure to pass the Class XII exams twice in the last three years and his father’s joblessness.
Rabin’s father Sushobhan Debnath used to work in a courier company and lost his job last year during the lockdown.
An officer of Bansdroni police station said the family had been under tremendous financial stress since Sushobhan lost his job. “Family members have said Rabin would remain agitated because of their financial condition,” said an officer.
Around 9pm on Tuesday, Rabin grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his stomach multiple times, the police said. He passed out and was rushed to SSKM Hospital, where he was declared dead.
No suicide note has been found, the police said.
“The preliminary post-mortem report has said the stab wounds were self-inflicted in nature,” an officer said.
Many people in and around Kolkata had chosen to end their lives in the last one-and-a-half years because the pandemic’s deadly impact on the economy had robbed them or their family members of livelihood.
Earlier this month, a father of two, who had incurred huge losses in his catering business during the pandemic and was forced to sell lottery tickets to sustain his family, ended his life by hanging himself from a tree in Bansdroni.
In December last year, a 46-year-old executive who was finding it difficult to repay loans following a pay cut during the pandemic committed suicide in his flat on the Rashbehari connector.
Last month, a 53-year-old man who had lost his permanent job at a consultancy firm committed suicide in Patuli.
In October, a 51-year-old ended his life in Golf Green after his business floundered because of the pandemic and he was unable to repay an educational loan he had taken for his daughter.
There were many who became unemployed and could not adjust with their new jobs.
In June, a 38-year-old man who had been left unemployed during the pandemic and was supporting his family supplying polythene bags to small shops committed suicide in Behala.
In July, a 71-year-old widow, a pensioner and the lone earning member of the family, committed suicide at her Haridevpur home by consuming bathroom cleaner. Her son, who had been doing odd jobs, lost all means of income during the pandemic.