Police are trying to ascertain what caused the two girls to jump off the restaurant
Highlights
- The two girls who jumped are said to be close friends
- Their teachers allegedly had a problem with their "intimate friendship"
- After they were asked to bring their parents to school, they went missing
Two Class eight students, said to be close friends, jumped off a building to commit suicide in Tamil Nadu. One girl was found dead on Saturday, the other is still battling for life.
A police officer said the girls had an "intimate friendship" which their teachers felt was "inappropriate". Their parents had also been asked to counsel them in the past, he said.
It is not clear what really happened at school on Friday. But a teacher did tell the two girls to come to school with their parents the next day.
The two girls did not go back home.
When their daughters didn't return home after school, their parents complained to the police that they were missing.
"We tried to trace the girls on Friday but could not locate them," the officer in Salem district, over 350 km south of state capital Chennai said.
The next morning, the girls were seen jumping off the five-storied building by some people.
The scene outside the building in Salem district where 2 school girls jumped off a building
One had died on the spot. The second girl, however, survived the fall and was rushed to the local government hospital with serious injuries including multiple fractures, the police said.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Tamil Nadu reports the second largest number of student suicides in the country
In September, a Class 12 topper Anitha hanged herselfafter she could not crack national exam for medical admission. Last month, four Class 11 girls killed themselves jumping into a well after teachers summoned their parents for poor performance.
Duvvru Raga Monica, a first-year engineering student too committed suicide in shame after she was caught copying in exam.
Experts blame it on lack of skills to cope with failure.
"These are mostly impulsive suicides, unable to deal with failure or a crisis. They lack skills to handle failure. Involving everyone in sports could help them to deal with failure easily but unfortunately, there is no focus on sports as even sports hours are being used for other subjects. You seldom see sportspersons committing suicide. Sports is an effective tool to prevent suicides,"a Dr Mohan Raj, a psychiatrist told NDTV.