As many as four suicides were reported in Maharashtra’s Nagpur in less than 24 hours on Wednesday. Among the deceased, three of them lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, as per a report in Newsbits.
In the foremost incident, 37-year-old Dharmendra Pal Singh hung himself to death. He was facing a financial crunch and was unable to pay the electricity bill due to which electricity supply at his house was cut. He has left a handwritten note. The police are investigating the case.
The second case was being reported from Nagpur’s Kapil Nagar wherein 30-year-old Yogesh Narendra Mohod ended his life at his residence in the MHADA quarters. Mohod, an auto driver, lost his work during the COVID lockdown. His mother worked as a house help. However, she too lost her job during the pandemic.
In the third incident, 30-year-old Suraj Aasole who hails from Ganjanan Nagar hung himself by a ceiling fan. One of the neighbours told media persons that his employer had asked him to leave and even his wife had left the house, some time ago.
The fourth suicide case was reported on Wednesday. 28-year-old Rajesh Dhanraj was an electrician who hung himself at his residence. The police have registered separate cases and begun a probe into the circumstances surrounding the incidents.
As many as 41 lakh youth in the country lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic while construction and farm sector workers account for the majority of job losses, according to a joints report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Even before the Covid-19 crisis, youth in Asia and the Pacific faced challenges in the labour market, resulting in high unemployment rates and large shares of youth excluded from both school and work.
In 2019, the regional youth unemployment rate was 13.8%, compared to 3% for adults, and more than 160 million youth (24% of the population) were not in employment, education or training.
