Suicides...Dubai

TN man jumps to death from world's tallest building
Daniel P George, May 12, 2011, 12.35am IST
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Burj Khalifa

CHENNAI: A 38-year-old man from Sivaganga district allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, in Dubai on Tuesday. The Indian consulate in Dubai said Athiraman Kannan was employed as a cleaner with Arabtec, a construction company.

Sources said Kannan committed suicide after he was refused leave by his supervisor. Police said he hurled himself from an air vent on the 147th floor of the 2,717ft building at 9am. He struck metal barriers before landing on the terrace of the 108th floor.

His death is the first recorded suicide at the building since it was completed last year.

Emaar Properties, the developer of the tower, said the incident occurred in the morning. "Around 9am, an incident involving a male was reported at the Burj Khalifa site. The concerned authorities have confirmed that it was a suicide, and we are awaiting the final report," it said in a statement. Emaar said floors 45 to 108 were private residences, with most of the remaining floors used as corporate suites.
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Indian consulate officials said they were coordinating with the local police in the investigations and Kannan's body would be sent to India once the police formalities were completed.

The Gulf dream seems to have become a deathtrap for many Indians. At least 80 committed suicide in the UAE in the last two years due to debts. Most victims belonged to Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Brother’s death had shaken victim’
May 12, 2011
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DUBAI: Dubai Police confirmed on Wednesday that the Asian national who jumped from Burj Khalifa had committed suicide.

The 38-year-old Indian national, Athiraman Kannan, “was an employee of Arabtec, working as a cleaner in the building,” said a statement from the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

“Kannan fell from Burj Khalifa and died on [Tuesday]...Investigations on this death are currently being undertaken by police authorities,” added the statement.

Col. Ali Ahmed Ghanim, director of Dubai Police station, said that Kannan took off his shoes and left his notebook at the site before committing suicide.

The deceased reportedly jumped from the 148th floor through an area where the company was carrying out construction works.

Ghanim called on the public to stay away from rumours and verify the truth from official sources.

He also pointed out that according to statements made by the deceased’s friends, he was facing some trouble at work, but had also been suffering psychological trauma caused by the death of his brother.

Ghanem noted that police teams rushed to the scene of the incident, following reports that someone had jumped to his death from the Burj. He explained that the deceased jumped from the 148th floor and collided with iron barriers surrounding the building, causing his body to land on the 124th floor. Investigations revealed that the deceased had jumped through a hole that was located where construction works were going on.

The police official said that the body had been transferred to a hospital to carry out necessary procedures.

“The consulate is in touch with the concerned authorities and will extend all assistance in sending the mortal remains to his family after completion of the required formalities,” added the Indian consulate.


Burj Khalifa suicide named as Arabtec employee
by CW Staff on May 11, 2011

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Officials have named the man who hurled himself from the Burj Khalifa on Tuesday. Photo: Getty.
Officials have named the man who hurled himself from the Burj Khalifa on Tuesday. Photo: Getty.

RELATED ARTICLES: Man dies after fall from world's tallest building | Contractors questioned over Dubai worker deaths | French Spiderman conquers the Burj Khalifa

A man who committed suicide by hurling himself from the Burj Khalifa has been named as an employee of Dubai building firm Arabtec.

Athiraman Kannan, a 38-year-old Indian, died after jumping from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest tower at around 9am on Tuesday morning.

According to a statement from the Indian Consulate in Dubai, Kannan had been employed by Arabtec as a cleaner in the Burj Khalifa.

Unconfirmed media reports said Tuesday Kannan had jumped after a dispute with his employer.

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A spokesperson for Arabtec, which co-built the Burj Khalifa, was not immediately available to comment.

Kannan, from the state of Tamil Nadu, died on impact after landing on the deck of the 108th floor. His family have been informed of his death, the Indian Consulate said Wednesday.

“Investigations on this death are currently are being undertaken by the police authorities,” the consulate said in a statement to Arabian Business.

Emaar, the developer behind the Burj Khalifa, confirmed the incident and said it was awaiting the findings of an investigation into the man's death.

"The concerned authorities have confirmed that it was a suicide, and we are awaiting the final report," the company said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest tower, standing 828m high. It is the first recorded suicide at the iconic building, which opened to the public in January 2010.


Dubai police confirm Asian youth committed suicide
By Amira Agarib

11 May 2011
DUBAI — Colonel Ali Ghanim, Director of Bur Dubai Police Station said that the Asian who committed suicide yesterday is working as supervisor of a contracting company .

He committed suicide by jumping from 148 floor of Bur Khalifa from a place where the company is doing construction work at the top of the tower .The victim had removed his shoes before jumping and also he left his personal notes in the same location, the official said.

He said that the police teams rushed to the accident scene after they operation room received information that some body has jumped from 148 floor of Burj Khalifa.

.He said that he hit the iron fences on the tower front.

Meanwhile, the Indian Consulate in Dubai has identified the man as a 38-year-old cleaner from Tamil Nadu state.

The Consulate issued a press statement on Tuesday naming the man as Athiraman Kannan, an employee of Arabtec.

“An Indian national, Mr. Athiraman Kannan, fell from Burj Khalifa and died on May 10, 2011. 38 years old Kannan was from the state of Tamil Nadu and was an employee of Arabtec, working as a cleaner in the building,” the statement from the Consulate said.

“Investigations on this death are currently are being undertaken by the Police authorities. The Consulate is in touch with the concerned authorities and will extend all assistance in sending the mortal remains to his family after completion of the required formalities,” it added. — sajila@khaleejtimes.com




Nurse jumps to death from fifth-floor balcony
Indian nurse was suffering from depression
By

VM Sathish

Published Thursday, April 21, 2011

Picture used for illustrative purposes only. General view of Sharjah (FILE)

A 45-year-old Indian nurse working in an Ajman hospital jumped from the balcony of her multistoried building in the Rolla area of Sharjah. Shirley Vettikkathu died on the spot, according to eye witnesses.
According to Sharjah Police sources, the lady had been suffering from severe depression and had tried to commit suicide earlier also. The suicide shocked the residents of Rolla on Wednesday afternoon.

The lady was living with her husband and two children in the high-rise building near Burj 2000 Tower for eight years.

The accident occurred around 1 pm on Wednesday. Sharjah Police officials were quoted by the Khaleej Times as saying that the lady ‘jumped from the balcony’ and ‘committed suicide’. According to reports, police interrogated her husband, relatives and neighbours, as the woman had been suffering from depression for several weeks.

“She had tried to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony several times but was prevented by the husband. Finally, he fixed metal bars to the balcony’s railings,” the paper reported.

“The woman locked the flat from inside and jumped from the balcony, taking the metal bars also down. When the police found the body, the metal bars were beneath her. The fall resulted in severe damage, which caused her immediate death. The police investigation is still continuing and the body has been taken to the forensic lab for autopsy,” the report said.

Reports suggest that most of the suicide victims in the UAE are Indians. Of the total number of suicide cases reported in Dubai in 2009, about 70 per cent were Indian nationals, according to a recent statistics. Out of a total 113 people who chose to end their lives, 79 were from the Indian sub-continent.

In the first 10 months of 2010, 10 women committed suicide in Dubai, including one Indian, three Filipinos and two Nepalese, one British, one Saudi Arabian and one Ethiopian. Most of the victims chose to hang themselves, followed by those who cut their wrists and the rest either jumped from high rises or took drug overdose.

Give 5 million tonnes more grains to poor: Supreme Court

Give 5m tonnes more grains to poor: SC to government
HT Correspondent
New Delhi, May 15, 2011
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First Published: 01:18 IST(15/5/2011)
Last Updated: 02:08 IST(15/5/2011)
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The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the government to immediately allocate an additional 5 million tonnes of foodgrains to 150 poorest districts of the country under the supervision of a committee appointed by the court. “Our anxiety is that there shall be no starvation deaths in a country like o
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urs. We don't think there is anything more important than this,” the court said.

A bench headed by justice Dalveer Bhandari asked the government to distribute the additional foodgrains during the summer to the poor and vulnerable sections of society under the guidance of a commitee headed by justice DP Wadhwa.

The Wadhwa committee, the court said, would identify the “targeted beneficiaries” in consultation with the Centre. The court said the additional 5 million tonnes to be distributed would be in addition to a similar quantity offered earlier by the government for distribution among the poorest of the poor.

The apex court also directed the chief secretaries of all states receiving the additional foodgrains to first exhaust the unutilised stocks allocated to them and then distribute additional stocks.

The bench asked the Wadhwa committee to submit a summary report before July 22 while the government would file an affidavit in six weeks on compliance of the order.

“Why can't you give it (foodgrains being wasted) to the poor on a subsidised rate,” the bench had earlier asked the solicitor general of India after a petitioner — People’s Union for Civil Liberties — complained that huge quantities of foodgrains were recently destroyed in Punjab even as the poor starved in other parts of the country.

“In the public distribution system, subsidised food is primarily meant for the very poor, weak and vulnerable sections of our society. Admittedly, there are some districts and/or small pockets in our country where the majority of people live in penury. They do not have the financial capacity to buy adequate foodgrains for their survival. A number of cases of malnutrition and starvation are reported from time to time. Subsidised food is really meant for this section of our society," the court said.

The court also questioned the rationale behind the Centre distributing rice meant for people below the poverty line (BPL) to the beneficiaries on the basis of a 10-year census figure and said it should be done on the basis of annual figures.

"We see no rationale in not distributing foodgrains according to the estimate of the Union of India. The food allocation should be based on every year's population estimate as carried out by the Planning Commission or the registrar general in the absence of any official census figure,” it said, adding that the Centre should consider distributing food on an individual basis rather than on a family basis.

“There seems to be no justification for the present approach that gives the same 35 kg of foodgrain allocation to a family of 10 persons as it does to a single person. The single man is likely to sell his excess grain for a profit while the parents in a family of 10 are forced to purchase additional grains at non-BPL prices in order to feed their children,” the bench said.


SC doubles food for poor
May 15, 2011 - S.S. Negi |

Age Corespondent

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Terming the Planning Commission’s yardsticks for determining poverty in the country as “impossible” for the subsistence of any person, the Supreme Court on Saturday directed the Centre to earmark 10 million tonnes of food grains exclusively for the poorest of the poor, including those living in the 150 most poor districts and accounting for the majority of the 3,000 malnutrition deaths every day.

“According to the Planning Commission, `15 per capita per day in rural areas and `20 in urban areas is the yardstick for evaluating who is below the poverty line (BPL). It is impossible for any individual in an urban area to consume 2,100 calories in `20 and 2,400 calories in `15 in rural areas,” a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said.
The court pointed out that these figures on calories required for normal persons per day had been fixed by the government agencies themselves. “The Planning Commission may revise norms of per capita amount looking at the price index of May, 2011 or any other subsequent dates,” the court said, rejecting the parameters fixed by it.
While finding the Centre’s proposal to release 5 millions tones of additional food grains to all the states and Union Territories for distribution to BPL families as inadequate, the top court directed the government to double the allocation and make it at least 10 million tonnes for the time being.
The increased five million tonnes would exclusively go to the 150 most poor districts in the country while the other five million tones “must go to the most vulnerable sections” in other parts of the country, ordered the court.
To prevent any pilferage and corruption in distribution, the bench asked the Justice D.P. Wadhwa Committee, assisting the court in monitoring the PDS and collecting data on its functioning in different states, to supervise the distribution of the increased quota, which was ordered to be increased taking into account “conflicting” figures on the BPL population produced by the states and Centre.
Commenting on the conflicting figures, the court said “food allocation should be based on every year’s population estimate as carried out by the Planning Commission or the Registrar-General, in the absence of any official census figures”. It disapproved of the practice of sticking to figures of the previous census merely on the premise that the new figures on the poverty line had not been worked out.
Reverting to the Planning Commission’s criteria for determining the poverty line, the court reminded the government and the panel that there was a large section of the poor sitting on the fence with an only marginally higher income of `20 per day in urban areas and `15 in rural areas. “They also deserve food at subsidised rates,” the court said.
It pointed out that the Wadhwa Committee had referred to this group as “marginally above poverty line (MAPL)” but if the parameters of the intake of calories was applied to them, then there would hardly be any difference between the BPL and MAPL populations.
“We have no objection to the government providing universal food security. However, they must first ensure food security for the more vulnerable sections of society,” the bench said while finding fault in uniformly distributing 35 kg of food grains per BPL family without determining the actual number of members in a family. The court also criticised the government for allowing wastage of food grains, saying “about 55,000 tonnes of grain rotted in Punjab and Haryana and a very large chunk was destroyed in a recent fire in Punjab as the stock was lying in the open”.

Disturbed 33 year old hangs self

Disturbed 33-year-old hangs self
Pradeep Gupta, May 10, 2011, 12.33am IST

THANE: A 33-year-old man committed suicide on Sunday by hanging himself from the ceiling at his flat in Dombivli (E). The deceased, identified as Rohit Singh, was employed with a firm in Andheri.

According to the Ramnagar police, Rohit had not been answering calls from his family for the last one week. "Rohit's family members said he was mentally disturbed," said senior inspector Y A Matkar.

suicide related news, schizophrenic computer to help understanhuman brain, all humans are liarsd

Husband booked for abetting wife's suicide
May 5, 2011, 06.08am IST

NAGPUR: Yashodhara Nagar police have booked a man for abetting his wife to commit suicide. The accused husband has been identified as Narendra Dhanraj Nimje (35), a resident of Vinoba Bhave Nagar.

Police said on April 28, Archana (30) had committed suicide by setting herself ablaze following mental and physical torture by her husband. She was admitted to Mayo hospital with serious burns and on May 2, Archana succumbed to her burns. On the basis of her statement, the police have booked Narendra.

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May 5th 2011

80 year old man from chennai commits suicide in Kerala bhavan, vashi, navi mumbai.


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47% of young Indian women marry before age 18

47% of young Indian women marry before 18
Anahita Mukherji, May 10, 2011, 03.18am IST
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Population Reference Bureau

MUMBAI: That India marries off its daughters in such a hurry that they have little time to grow out of their teens is a fact that no longer raises eyebrows. But what should come as a shock to a country that preens itself over its growing economic prowess is that we fare worse than sub-Saharan Africa, or for that matter, all of Africa put together, when it comes to child marriage.

If that's not bad enough, sample this. The degree to which child marriage is practised in India is more than double the figure for Pakistan, a country we don't quite look up to as a role model. While India would like to believe that it will one day break into the league of countries such as the US and UK, we can take solace from the fact that a worldwide scorecard on child marriage shows that we're better off than Bangladesh, Mali and Burkina Faso. The US and UK dont even figure on the list.
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A 2011 data sheet called `The World's Women and Girls', released by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau, shows that 47% of women in India between the ages of 20 and 24 were married by 18. This is higher than the average for South Central Asia (45%), of which India is a part. The average for Africa as a continent works out to 34%. Most African countries fare better than India, including Ghana, Sudan and Nigeria. While Pakistan's score works out to 24%, even Afghanistan, with a pathetic score of 43%, does a better job than India when it comes to curbing child marriage.

Vibhuti Patel, director, post graduate studies and research (PGSR) and head of the PG economics department at SNDT University, who was an early advocate of India's feminist movement, points to the rather strange link between child marriage and the success of some of India's welfare schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

SSA helps schoolgirls till Class IV, after which there are a large number of dropouts and ICDS children in the age group of 0-6. As a result adolescent girls, who mostly drop out after Class VII as they can't cope up with math, science and English, don't have to look after their younger siblings. ``In the absence of any programmes targeting adolescent girls in terms of vocational training or life-skill development by the state or by civil society groups, many parents are worried that these girls, who are now free of responsibility and have a lot of time on their hands, may end up in premarital relationships and turn unwed mothers,'' she said.


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‘Schizophrenic’ computer to help understand our brain
May 9, 2011, 07.40am IST
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Yale University|
University of Texas

WASHINGTON: In a unique experiment, scientists in the US claim to have afflicted computers with virtual schizophrenia to better understand the human brain with the condition. A team from University of Texas and Yale University has used a virtual computer model or "neural network" to simulate the excessive release of dopamine in the brain.

The findings, published in the 'Biological Psychiatry' journal, revealed that the network recalled memories in a distinctly schizophrenic-like fashion . "The hypothesis is that dopamine encodes the importance the salience of experience. When there's too much dopamine, it leads to exaggerated salience, and the brain ends up learning from things that it shouldn't be learning from," said team member Uli Grasemann.

The results bolster a hypothesis known in schizophrenia circles as the hyperlearning hypothesis, which posits that people suffering from schizophrenia have brains that lose the ability to forget or ignore as much as they normally would.
Without forgetting, they lose the ability to extract what's meaningful out of the immensity of stimuli the brain encounters. They start making connections that aren't real, or drowning in a sea of so many connections they lose the ability to stitch together any kind of coherent story.

The neural network used by Grasemann and his adviser, Professor Risto Miikkulainen, is called DISCERN . Designed by Miikkulainen, DISCERN is able to learn natural language . In this research, it was used to simulate what happens to language as result of eight different types of neurological dysfunction. The results of the simulations were compared by Ralph Hoffman, professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, to what he saw when studying human schizophrenics.

"With neural networks, you basically train them by showing them examples, over and over and over again. Every time you show it an example, you say, if this is the input, then this should be your output, and if this is the input, then that should be your output. "You do it again and again thousands of times, and every time it adjusts a little bit more towards doing what you want. In the end, if you do it enough, the network has learned," Grasemann said.

In order to model hyperlearning, Grasemann and Miikkulainen ran the system through its paces again, but with one key parameter altered. They simulated an excessive release of dopamine by increasing the system's learning rate-essentially telling it to stop forgetting so much.

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All humans are born liars
All humans are born liars, & we are not fibbing
May 9, 2011, 07.41am IST

LONDON: If your child lies at three, be delighted, if they lie at seven, be very afraid but please don't fret about telling fibs — it's what that makes us human, says a new book. According to the book, 'Born Liars', penned by Ian Leslie, people are "all born liars" . Between the ages of two and four, children's lies are usually told to avoid punishment. Very young children tend not to be good at lying. Then, at around the age of four something changes, it says.

The book claims that somewhere between the ages of three-and-a-half and four and-a-half, children learn how to lie with much greater skill and enthusiasm. According to the book, lying is hard and children who lie well must be able to recognize the truth, conceive of an alternative, false but coherent story and juggle those two versions in their mind, while selling the alternative reality to someone else — all the time bearing in mind what the other person is likely to be thinking and feeling.
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It is wondrous that a child of four should be able to do this — if you catch your three-year-old in a well-told lie, be impressed — but don't congratulate them, it says.

However, the number of lies told by children tends to spike among those aged four as they exercise their amazing new powers, but it usually declines during their first school years, as the child receives social feedback.

Kids learn that the benefits of lying come at a hefty price. They find that if they lie too much, teachers and friends lose faith in their credibility and they become unpopular, says the author.

The majority of children learn not to lie instinctively, but a few remain impervious to it. Persistent lying in older children is usually the sign of a deeper malaise, according to the book. If a child is lying habitually after the age of seven, they may continue to do so for years to come, even into adulthood.
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Husband's illicit affair amounts to cruelty

Husband's illicit affair amounts to cruelty
Urvi Mahajani, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, May 11, 2011
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First Published: 01:38 IST(11/5/2011)
Last Updated: 01:39 IST(11/5/2011)
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If a man is involved in an illicit relationship, it amounts to cruelty to his wife, the Bombay high court said last week, while upholding a six-month sentence given in 1997 by a sessions court judge. Justice AR Joshi said the husband had committed an offence under section 498A (husband or husband's
relative subjecting woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code by having an affair, which was known to his wife.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by Nashik resident Ratan Jagzap, who had challenged the six-month sentence imposed on him after his wife, Chandrakala, committed suicide on learning about the affair.

Jagzap has been out on bail since 1995. More than 15 years after his wife committed suicide, he will now spend six months in jail.

In November 1995, Chandrakala killed herself by consuming pesticide. A few days before the incident, she had complained to her parents that Jagzap was ill-treating her. The police had then booked him for cruelty and abetment to suicide.

During trial, the prosecution had said that Jagzap got involved with his business partner's wife, and the duo left their homes and started living together in Dhule along with their sons from their respective marriages.

Chandrakala had gone to Dhule to convince Jagzap to return but in vain.

Though the sessions court convicted Jagzap for subjecting Chandrakala to cruelty, it acquitted him from charges of abetment to suicide, considering the "material deficient of bringing home the charge".

An aggrieved Jagzap had filed an appeal in the high court.

Justice Joshi upheld the conviction for cruelty.

However, as neither the government nor the victim's parents had challenged Jagzap's acquittal for abetment to suicide, the high court did not interfere with it.

"The trial court did not consider the mental cruelty as sufficient for Chandrakala to end her life. It said Chandrakala became over-sentimental and out of desperation she took the extreme step," the high court observed.

Borivili woman jumps to death

Borivli woman jumps to death, in-laws, husband held
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, May 11, 2011
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First Published: 01:48 IST(11/5/2011)
Last Updated: 01:49 IST(11/5/2011)
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The Borivli police on Tuesday arrested a Belgium- based diamond merchant and his parents for allegedly abetting the suicide of his 26-year-old wife by harassing her for dowry. The deceased Bhakti Shah, 26, had returned from Belgium with her husband Tejas seven months back. She allegedly committed
suicide on Tuesday afternoon by jumping off the fourth floor of the building she was residing in with her husband and in-laws. After recording the statement of Bhakti's family members, the Borivli police registered a case of abetment to suicide and dowry harassment in addition to relevant sections of the Dowry Act.

The incident took place around 9.20am on Tuesday in Mangalkunj building at Borivli. After the watchman heard a loud thud, he rushed to the spot and found Bhakti lying in a pool of blood. He informed her in-laws and rushed her to Patel nursing home located on the ground floor of the same building, said the police.

After Bhakti's condition did not improve, she was taken to Kokilaben Ambani hospital in Andheri, where she died while under treatment for multiple fractures and internal bleeding.

Tejas Shah and his parents Vasantbhai Shah and Sulsha Shah were arrested for abetting Bhakti's suicide by harassing her for dowry, said Ramrao Pawar, additional commissioner of police (North Region).

Bhakti, who was married to Tejas for three years, delivered a baby boy five months back. Bhakti's father is also a diamond merchant and resides at Vile Parle with his family.

Bhakti reportedly had an argument with Tejas early Tuesday morning. The victim's parents told the police their daughter was under stress since the past few months due to harassment for dowry.

Dr Jaspreet Singh, the death of merit, documentary on dalit suiicde

The documentary 'Dr Jaspreet Singh: The Death of Merit' is second in the series of our efforts to document caste-based discrimination prevalent in Indian higher education system resulting in large number of suicides of Dalit students in Indian campuses.

It is based on the testimonies of parents and family members of Dr Jaspreet Singh, 22 years, who was a student of Final Year, MBBS at Government Medical College, Chandigarh.

Harrased due to his caste by one of the professors, Dr Jaspreet Singh committed suicide on 27th January, 2008, by hanging himself on the 5th floor of his college’s library.


* Please watch the documentary 'Dr Jaspreet Singh:The Death of Merit' at YouTube at below link.

http://youtu.be/Rd9lcsy9Ty8 or can watch it at our blog www.thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com


About the documentary


Dr Jaspreet Singh (1987-2008) was a school topper and quite bright Dalit student, from a very humble background. He used to clear all his papers without fail, in 4 years of his MBBS, till he met a professor whose criteria of merit was not Jaspreet’s performance but his ‘caste’.

Do whatever you can do, I will make you to do your MBBS all over again‘ was the taunt Prof N.K. Goel, Head of Department, Community Medcine, Government Medical College, Chandigarh used to make to a final year student who, in his 4 years of MBBS, had cleared each and every paper without fail.

Tensed and much humiliated Jaspreet informed many other faculty members and friends about the casteist behaviour of Prof Goel and his fear of being failed once again but to no avail. He was once again failed in the same paper by just one mark. Finally he committed suicide in the college’s library leaving behind a suicide note mentioning the name of the professor and his casteist behaviour.

Only after the intervention of National Scheduled Caste Commission, police filed the case under SC/ST Act and the answer sheet of Dr Jaspreet Singh were sent to a panel of 3 external examiners for re-evalutaion.

And Dr Jaspreet passed the exam, but after his death. Three years after, his parents and two sisters are still fighting the case and waiting for justice, not only for their son, but like Dr Balmukund Bharti’s parents, for all other Dalit students so that they do not suffer the fate of Jaspreet.


* Please watch our first documentary 'The Death of Merit' (in 2 parts) released on April 23, 2011 at YouTube at below link. It is on the suicide of Dr Balmukund Bharti from AIIMS, New Delhi.

Part I - http://youtu.be/2L3y9O1HCBw

Part II - http://youtu.be/ADXnFf_5JT4

* For the list of Dalit students committing suicide in last four years in India’s premier educational institutions, please click here.

* To read the report Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi, please click here.

* To read the article ‘On Suicide, Caste and Higher Education, please click here