The NHRC on Thursday said it has issued a notice to the Kerala government and the state’s police chief over reports that that there is allegedly an “alarming increase in suicides” among tribals settled in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram district with about 23 deaths reported this year itself.“Reportedly, as per rough estimates, around 138 happened mostly in Peringammala Panchayat in the district between 2011-2022. Now after two years of relative calm, the string of suicides has returned to haunt the tribal settlements in the district,” the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
The rights panel said it has taken “suo motu cognisance of a media report that there is an alarming increase in suicides” among people from tribal community settled in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala with about 23 deaths reported in 2024 itself, it said.