Hyderabad: Upset Over Job Loss, Software Engineer Ends Life In Her Hostel Room

Upset over losing her job, a young software engineer ended her life in Hyderabad. The victim has been identified as Pogaku Harini. The 24-year-old, who belonged to Telangana’s Mahbubnagar district, was working at a Hyderabad-based company as junior software developer. She was working with the IT company for past two years. According to media reports, Harini was reportedly served retrenchment notice by the company and was told that November 30 would be her last working day. The News Minute reported that the family was in know of the pink slip and had repeatedly tried to convince her and look beyond this job.

“According to her father and brother, she had been upset over the notice for the last few days and took the extreme step despite their efforts to convince her otherwise,” Raidurgam Inspector Ravinder was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday night, Harini went to her Gachibowli hostel room and killed herself. She reportedly left behind a suicide note in which she asked her family to donate her organs. The Raidurgam police has filed a case under Section 174 of the CrPC (Suspicious death) and they are probing the matter.

Indian economy is facing the worst slump in decade with major sectors such as automobile and IT reporting layoffs. A recent report had said that over 350,000 jobs were lost in automobile and other sectors. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India's unemployment rate has again hit a three-year high of 8.4 per cent in August 2019. With this, India's unemployment rate is at its highest since September 2016. In 2018, 18.6 million Indians were jobless. 50 lakh Indians who lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018, with young urban men hit the hardest, according to a report by the Azim Premji University. 

If you are aware of anyone facing mental health or facing such issues yourself, here are some helpline numbers:

Telangana government suicide prevention toll free no - 104 Roshni- 040-66202000, 6620200SEVA- 09441778290, 040 - 27504682 (between 9 AM and 7 PM)

Anonymous helpline: 78930 78930