Seeing school certificate in tatters, teen allegedly commits suicide

A 19-year-old in Kerala allegedly committed suicide after finding his class twelve certificates destroyed due to the floods, news agency PTI reported.

According to police, Kailash and his parents, hailing from Karanthur in Kozhikode district, had moved to a relief camp three days ago after their house was inundated with water. As the rainfall eased for a while, he returned home on Sunday and was shocked to find his documents in tatters. His death came to light later in the day after his parents came to clean up the house. They were shocked to see him hanging, police said.

His father, a labourer, had pinned all his hopes on his son as all their belongings had been mostly destroyed in the rains. Kailash had got admission for a course in the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and had purchased new clothes and set apart some money for higher studies, they said.

In Kerala’s Alappuzha district, a woman was wailing saying she had lost her Aadhaar card, Ration card and other documents. “All my belongings, my Aadhar and Ration cards and ID proofs are all gone. Only I am alive. My relatives do not even know I exist,” she mourned.

While rainfall has abated in most of the districts in Kerala, authorities have now shifted to provide relief to affected persons, and to rebuild infrastructure damaged by the floods. Nearly nine lakh people are lodged in camps and over 200 have lost their lives due to the torrential rainfall in the state since August 8.