KAKKANAD: Two inmates of the Children’s Home here were admitted to the Ernakulam Government Medical College Hospital following a suicide attempt. It is learnt that the inmates were admitted to the hospital by the authorities of the Home on Wednesday.
According to a source at the Home, the two girls attempted suicide after consuming ‘Domex’, a disinfectant. “Both of them are aged around 17. The first one attempted suicide after her parents refused to meet her and that provoked her to take the extreme step. The second girl was depressed after hearing her inmates mouthing abuses about her father. She was mentally weak who didn’t have a strong frame of mind and decided to end her life as she couldn’t take it any further.” Meanwhile, the two Childline officials who visited the hospital on Saturday were denied permission by hospital authorities.
“When we reached there after coming to know about the incident, the hospital superintendent didn’t grant us permission and also denied of any such incident. We informed them about the purpose of the visit and also showed our identity cards, but they didn’t permit us and behaved rudely towards us,” said a Childline official. But hospital superintendent KGR Mallan said he was not aware of any such incident of students attempting suicide.
“I didn’t receive any information about such a case. There are two other inmates admitted with epilepsy in the paediatric ward,” said Dr Mallan.
When contacted Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson P Padmaja Nair, she confirmed that only one inmate was admitted but later agreed that there were two. She said that there was no mystery involved and was against dragging the children into public attention.
“The condition of the girls is normal and they are out of danger. There was a strict order from the CWC to the hospital authorities not to let anybody visit the children. If the Childline officials want to visit them they would have to take a prior appointment with the CWC and then there is no restriction for them to enter and visit the inmates,” said the chairperson of CWC. Adding further she said,
“Most of them are interested to know the problems, but none tries to learn about their living conditions and how officials are managing the 45 inmates. What ails is the attention of the government which is much needed to overcome the problems persisting here,” she said.
With this, the number of suicide attempts has risen to three in a period of two months, as there was a similar case last month, where an inmate who attempted suicide was admitted to the Ernakulam General Hospital after consuming Iron tablets.