Five more students commit suicide

Five more students in Maharashtra ended their lives on Sunday, taking the total student suicide toll across the state to 15 in the past 10 days. Eleven of the victims were girls, most in their teens. Many of the suicides were reportedly due to exam stress.

Five more students in Maharashtra ended their lives on Sunday, taking the total student suicide toll across the state to 15 in the past 10 days.

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Eleven of the victims were girls, most in their teens. Many of the suicides were reportedly due to exam stress.

Worried by the spate of students ending their lives, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Sunday announced a committee headed by the education minister to look into the matter and suggest remedial measures.

Vikas Mahadev Lohar (16) of Solankur village in Kolhapur consumed poison because of examination pressures. Swati Rameshwar Balgude, a 16-year-old in Chombi-Ambi village, hanged herself in her house.

Sanmesh Santosh Deshprabhu, a 15-year-old boy, hanged himself from a fan in his house in Dahanu town of Thane district late Sunday. He was reportedly nervous about the preliminary public examinations that started on Monday.

Twenty-two-year-old Sonali Laxmanrao Barvekar also hanged herself in her house in Parbhani. Rakhi Dinkar Pagare, a 20-year-old resident of Satpur village in Nashik, committed suicide by hanging herself at her home.