DID A STARVING MOTHER & HER THREE CHILDREN COMMIT SUICIDE IN INDIA BECAUSE OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN? HERE’S THE TRUTH…

The COVID-19 lockdown has been grueling for several people. While the lockdowns and curfews imposed are for the purpose of public safety during the rapid spread of COVID-19, however it has created several complications on a section of the national population. For instance, freelancers, daily wage earners, taxi drivers, labourers etc are all left without means of income and in turn sans the ability to put food on their tables.

In this light a series of photos of a mother and her three young children from India are being circulated on social media in Sri Lanka. The post, running with the caption “තත්වය ඔබත් මමත් හිතන තරම් සුබදායි නොවනු ඇත”, meaning "The situation is not as good as you and I think it is," shows the family having committed suicide. Some of these posts can be seen below:

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FACT CHECK

While a nationwide curfew was imposed to prevent COVID-19 infections, there are also several widespread allegations about the lack of financial assistance that should have been furnished to families during the lockdown period. Several posts have been circulated and gone viral on social media making these claims including ones like families committing suicide due to the lack of government assistance. We investigated as to whether this specific family seen in the Facebook post in fact died as a result of the curfew or not.

We began with a simple Google Reverse Image Search only to discover that the photo was published in June 2019, over a year ago and hence has zero connection to the current lockdown. Further, the image was originally published by blurring out the faces of the victims ethically which has not been done in the local posts. The contents related to the original image as seen on sakshi.com tell us the woman killed her children and herself due to her husband’s excessive alcoholism.

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On a further search that included several related keywords, we discovered that leading Indian publication The Hindu has also covered the story in June 2019. The story also mentions the murders and suicide including the police station, name of the woman and the location which is Kannada.

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CONCLUSION

It is clear for our investigation, that the image has no connection with the current lockdown in India nor to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the viral posts claim that the suicides were a result of families starving due to the lockdown in Uttar Pradesh in 2020, the reality is that the incident occurred last year in the month of June where a woman committed suicide along with her children because of her husband’s excessive alcoholism. Our colleagues in the Tamil department also verified this story and declared it false. See the Tamil story HERE.

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