Having psychiatrists at institutions of higher learning

101 students committed suicide in 2021 in the universities and higher educational institutions of the country. Social and voluntary organization, Aachol Foundation, has given such information. Research shows that 61 per cent of suicide victims are students of public universities. Research shows that in 2019, on an average, 32 people were prone to commit suicide in a day, which is much higher than the previous year. In Bangladesh, the number of suicides is about 40 per 1 lakh poople. Apart from this, the trend of suicide among women in the country has increased. But there is no institutional monitoring for this. There is not even a coherent strategy. Although the matter is important for public health in Bangladesh, the authorities appear to have little concern about it. No one thinks suicide is a problem. According to the data of Aachol Foundation, Dhaka University had the highest number of suicides among the higher education institutions in the country last year. A total of nine students of Dhaka University committed suicide in 2021. Therefore, it is urgent that there are psychiatrists for the university students in need of counseling. Also, other measures including awareness raising programmes need to be started among the students to improve their mental health.

Ashikujaman Syed,

Research Assistant,

Bioinformatics Research Lab,

Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),

syedashikujaman@yahoo.com