Pandemic, distress, a broken phone: How a family in Goa lost their 16-year-old son

At Pal village in Goa’s Sattari taluka, a family is distraught. The pandemic and its aftereffects — reduced earnings, an uncertain future — had already put them through great hardship. A broken mobile phone was seemingly the last straw. On October 15, their 16-year-old son was found hanging in the house.

The father, who drives a private bus, says his son, a Class 10 student of a government school in the village, used a smartphone to attend his online classes. On October 11, the phone screen broke, but the boy kept it to himself, telling his mother only a couple of days later.