BANGALORE, MARCH 13: The ides of March has come and not yet gone but already thirty persons, a majority of them, as usual, being youths, have committed suicide in the city.If statistics are any consolation, last year in the month of March, fifty seven persons committed suicide. Psychiatrists acknowledge that the suicide rate in the city is on the rise but say that there is no cause for alarm. They are also not ready to label Bangalore as a `Suicide city'. They point at Kerala, statistics wise, leading in the country among the states. Citywise, Pondichery leads the rest.However Bangalore is listed among the high risk cities in the country as far as suicide is concerned.Experts feel a comparison of statistics of last year with this year was not tenable. ``It would be like comparing the prices of tomato on a particular day in two years,'' Says Dr Jagadish, Assistant Professor, Neurology Department, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Science. Dr Mohan Issac, head of Psychiatry Department, NationalInstitute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), feels that the official statistics were not reliable. The argument is that, in some cases, the investigation is still on whether a murder case has been passed off as a suicide case.He says youths ending their lives was a global phenomenon. For instance, one of the victims this month in Bangalore, include a 23-year-old girl who jumped from from the multi-storeyed Visweswaraya Towers, a dejected youth, aged 19, who drank concentrated sulphuric acid and Usha, 22, a qualified doctor who consumed excess dosage of medicine meant for heart ailment.``A rapidly growing city like Bangalore brings in its own pressures along: there is a need for youths to prove themselves in their homes and society'' Mohan Issac says. ``First, it will be the pressure of studies and education.The next problem will be of adolescence, later the crucial stage when the youth face competition in the real world. Most manage to cope but a few will succumb to the pressure. Alongwith these, factors like family support also are slowly diminishing,'' says Dr Issac.Dr Jagdish says, ``In the case of Kamalesh Wilson, who jumped from the Visweshwaraya towers recently it could have been her mood disorders. Such people are ambitious and hypersensitive. Their mood fluctuates dangerously: active and ambitious with unrealistic goals at one moment and totally depressed the next moment. It is during these bouts of depressions they have this strong urge to escape from the reality."He said suicide prone students are shy, intelligent, impulsive and can't tolerate failures in the life. Parents' high expectation of their wards also add pressure making children feel depressed for failing to fulfil expectations of parents." In last March, 57 persons ended their lives in comparison to 186 in April points at this increase in suicides among the student's community after the declaration of results in the month of April.All agree that proper care at the appropriate time can prevent a suicide.Facilities like those in Chennai, where a `telephone hot line' by a organisation called SNEHA to help depressed persons must be made available in Bangalore too.
