Jamshedpur, Dec. 2: Little did Vilashi Devi realise that the a few words of rebuke would lead her 13-year-old daughter, Soni, to commit suicide by hanging herself from an iron pole at her Shastri-nagar residence in Kadma late last evening.

Soni, a student of Class VII, was addicted to television serials and went to her neighbour?s house last evening to watch a serial, as the television at her house was not working.

On finding Soni there, her mother scolded her for shirking domestic work and being interested only in television and her studies.

Half-an-hour later a girl from the neighbourhood came to visit Soni. On going to her room, the girl found that Soni has committed suicide.

?It was only after half-an-hour that we found that she had committed suicide. She sneaked into the house and went to her room. She did not bolt the room from inside. I was cooking and my mother was in another room,? said Rita Singh, Soni?s elder sister.

?It was around 7.30 pm when my mother scolded Soni. We came to know of the incident when, at around 8 pm, a girl, Priti, who lives nearby, came to me for help in mathematics. As I was cooking, I asked her to take Soni?s help. She went to Soni?s room and soon after we heard her screaming. We rushed to the room to find Soni?s body hanging from an iron beam,? said Rita.

The family is yet to come to terms with the tragedy. A grief-stricken Vilasi Devi said she never imagined that her daughter would commit suicide in response to her reprimand.

?What did I say to make her take such a drastic step? She was good in studies but rarely lent a hand for domestic work,? said Vilasi who tried in vain to control her tears.

Vilasi said Soni would watch television for hours together. ?Such was her addiction to the television that she sometimes even forgot to take her meals while watching serials,? she said.

However, while parents blame their wards for taking such drastic steps for reprimand, psychiatrists hold parents responsible for such incidents.

When contacted, head of the department of psychiatry, Telco Hospital, Ashok Patnaik said children between the age-group of 12 to 13 years are sensitive and should treated with extra care.

These are the initial years of adolescence, during which children pass through a number of physical as well as emotional changes, Patnaik said.

?Being impulsive and sensitive, they tend to take such drastic steps. Therefore, parents should think twice before scolding their children after they reach this age group,? said Patnaik.

Children in this age group are impulsive and resort to suicide even for a small reprimand, Patnaik said.

?They act on the spur of the moment without giving any hints about their intentions to their parents. Being driven by impulse, they never consider the repercussion of their action on their parents. They commit suicide to ?get back? at their parents,? he added.