DHAKA: On an average, some 29 people commit suicide each day in Bangladesh and the unwanted death toll rises to around 10,000 in a year in the country.

The disclosure came from a discussion meeting on ‘Suicide Prevention Alternatives and Suggestions’ at Dhaka Reporters’ Unit (DRU) in the city on Saturday.

Addressing the discussion, Researcher and Psychotherapist of Orchid Psychological Research Center Umme Kulsum Koli said, “Around 800,000 people commit suicide every year in the world.”

Most of them are aged between 15 and 29 years, she added.

The number of suicide incidents has rapidly increased in the last few years so that she expressed apprehension that the yearly death toll may increase to 1500,000 by 2020.

She also told her audience that more and more people would express desire to commit suicide in the future.

The other experts also blamed negative personality and mental instability for committing suicide in most of the cases.

The slogan of this year’s Mental Health Day is ‘Let’s live with Schizophrenia’

BDST: 1735 HRS, OCT 25, 2014