Kathmandu, August 17:

Out of 239 suicide cases, 24 children under the age of 14 committed suicide this year in Kathmandu. Percentagewise, the figure comes to 10.04 per cent of the total number of people who committed suicide in Kathmandu and 7.05 per cent in the valley, a report prepared by the Valley Police Office, Ranipokhari, states.

Last year, the suicide rate among the children stood at 1.04, SSP Sanandan Prasad Kurmi, the spokesperson for the Valley Police Office, said. “Frustration, monotony, poverty, failure in love, mental disorder are some of the major factors that drive people to commit suicide,” police report states.

The police said children were found to commit suicide if their petty demands were not met and if they failed in examinations. “In two to three cases, children committed suicide because their parents had unhappy conjugal lives,” DSP Ganesh KC of the Kathmandu District Police Office said. “Urbanisation, soaring ambitions of children, development of technology and the news of suicide are driving children to commit suicide,” said Dr Rajit Bhakta Pradhangana, a criminologist. One hundred and twenty five men and 90 women committed suicide in Kathmandu this year. No one under the age of 14 was found to have committed suicide in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts this year.