Teenager Commits Suicide After Parents Banned Her From Facebook
A teenager in India committed suicide after her parents banned her from using Facebook. Aishwarya Dahiwal, a 17-year-old second-year college student from Parbhani in the state of Maharashtra, was found dead on Thursday morning.
Dahiwal killed herself on Wednesday night following an argument with her parents about not paying attention to her schoolwork and using social media sites like Facebook.
"Like all parents, their intentions were only to ensure that the girl did not go astray,” said investigating officer G.H. Lemgude, according to NDTV. “They advised her to concentrate on her technical studies and stay away from long mobile chats and social networking sites.”
After the argument with her parents, Dahiwal retreated to her bedroom, where she wrote a suicide note and
hanged herself.
"Is Facebook so bad? I cannot stay in a home with such restrictions, as I can't live without Facebook," her suicide note reads.
Her body was found Thursday morning.
Aishwarya’s father, Sunil Dahiwal, told India Real Time that his family was in a state of shock. “We still can’t believe it,” he said. “We are in deep shock. We just wanted her to focus on her studies. We never thought she would ever take such a harsh step.”
As India Real Time reports, there have been a rash of suicides in Maharashtra. Last year, 16,112 people killed themselves there, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Tamil Nadu was the state with the most suicides last year, with 16,297. West Bengal had 14,957 suicides last year and Karnataka had 12,753.
According to the Voice of Russia, Facebook is the preferred method of communication for teenagers in India, more so than mobile phones. Out of a population of 1.2 billion people, Facebook will be available to 200 million people in India by the end of this year.
