Shocking number of suicides reported in Agra: police

Agra: A total of 406 people have taken their lives in Agra where a suicide contagion is happening since June 2020.

Police records also reveal several mass suicides over the past two years beginning in June 2020 through the first week of July 2022, according to India Today.

In 2020, there were a total of 174 suicides in Agra, while in 2021-22, a total of 232 suicides, including 143 men, and 89 women have been recorded so far, the report said.

The shocking number of people in the city of half a million killed themselves because of financial crisis after the covid lockdown.

However suicides began happening after the relaxation of lockdown guidelines with the first mass suicide was reported in December 3, 2021.

Back then, a man along with his wife and five year-old daughter died by suicide in his office, according to the report, setting off the contagion.

The latest in a series of suicides to happen was in July this year after a man along with his wife and 9-year-old daughter killed themselves over financial crisis.

Experts blamed the mass suicides on financial crisis happening since covid lockdowns which has deprived several families of their livelihoods.

More important, depression stemming from scarcity drive people to the extreme.

One expert found "extended suicide" happening in Agra where one person first kills his dear ones before killing himself or herself.

The report further said in mass suicide members of a family kill themselves after mutual consent.