A young 27 year old scientist of Bhaba Atomic Research Center (BARC) committed suicide today in the suburban Mumbai. The incident took place in the late evening on Wednesday. The news tops local Mumbai news of the day.
Titus Pal, the scientist allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ventilator of her flat on the 14th floor or the Nilgiri Building complex located inside the BARC campus.
Family members of deceased Titus however did not accept the police theory of suicide.
“She was alright when she left Kolkata. My daughter was in perfectly good mood when she parted from us and then proceeded to Mumbai where she resumed work around 10 AM on March 3. We fail to understand why she would at all commit suicide. We sense foul play”, commented a visibly disturbed and sad father of Titus, Subrato Pal, a resident of Kolkata.
Late Titus Pal allegedly committed suicide ending her life only three days after she celebrated her birthday with her family at Kolkata. Her family could know about the sad incidence only when she did not respond to the phone calls of her father from Kolkata.
“Normally my daughter makes a phone call every day after she returns from work. On Wednesday when she didn’t call, I got worried and tried to contact her on her mobile phone. When there was no response, I called her neighbor and asked her to check whether everything was normal”, said Subrato Pal, the father of Titus.
Police is currently investigating the matter. But they did not reveal anything to throw light on the reasons or the circumstances that lead to the death of the dead scientist, despite the fact that the death was one of the most talked about news in Mumbai.
“This is really a sad blow to the organization. Titus was an upcoming and very bright scientist and we had much expectation from her. No one got any indication of her intention of committing suicide. Let us wait and see the results of police investigation”, said one of the top authorities of BARC in whose wing Titus was working.
Death of the young scientist however puts a big question mark on the workplace safety of woman in Mumbai, considered to be one of the best abodes for housing heterogeneous population from all over the country as well as overseas. While the reasons for her death is yet not clear, chances of workplace harassment or such other reasons cannot be thrown away. Despite the coming into force of the sexual harassment of women at workplace and such other preventive legislations, incidents of women at work allegedly committing suicide are coming up every now and then.
It is time for civil society for a self assessment and introspection.
