All across India, in villages, towns, middle class localities and povertystricken homes, people are choosing death. While politicians talk politics,economists talk numbers and doctors talk health, poverty, the facts are thatunemployment and prolonged illness are the giant killers in Indian homes.Buried in the statistics and graphs of the National Crime Records Bureau'srecently released report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India are storiesof despair and hopelessness.The trauma of being detected HIV positive, the horror of failing anexamination, poverty, failed crops and debts are pushing people to thebrink, forcing families into suicide pacts, students to hang themselves andfarmers to consume poison.The figures first. The all India suicide rate (number of suicides per lakhof population) in 1998 was 10.8. Pondicherry topped the list with 50.4, withAndaman and Nicobar Islands coming in second at 37. Kerela, the state mostassociated with suicides is third on the list with 29.3, followed byKarnataka (21.4).Other states which seem to be edging their way up on the list include WestBengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Among the Union Territories, Delhireported 982 cases of suicides, the highest number between 1996 and 1998. Other states which have reported a significant rise in the number ofsuicides in 1998 over 1997 include Mizoran (193.3 per cent), Manipur (130.8per cent) and Chandigarh (79.2 per cent).While it has taken the Bureau two years to collate data gathered in 1998,they say the trends indicated in the report hold true even today.Now the facts. Doctors and social workers say there's little doubt thatsuicides are on the rise. ``Increasing figures mean that more cases arebeing reported,'' says Dr Achal Bhagat, director of the non-governmentalorganisation Saarthak. ``The most alarming and definitive trend is theincrease in suicides in the age group of 13 and 25. Other than stress, thereare several mental health issues related to this.''While poverty, failed crops and debts have been the traditional causes forsuicides, today terminal illness and lack of medical facilities are drivingpeople to early deaths.According to the report, in 1998, trends indicated that suicides due toillicit relations, bankruptcy, illness and family problems were on the rise.What is more alarming is that there has been a 209 per cent increase insuicide cases due to AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, 52.5 per centdue to hero worshipping and 49.5 per cent due to professional and careerproblems in 1998 as opposed to 1997.Suniti Solomon of Chennai based NGO YRG Care, which primarily works in thefield of HIV/AIDS, says: ``Social non-acceptance is the biggest cause forincrease in suicides due to illness. Counselling and consent before testsalone can save so many lives. What this trend actually indicates is thathealth services and society's outlook are the main causes for these deaths.''Bhagat adds, ``Terminal illness is a main cause because of the stigma andgrief attached to it. For example, AIDS programmes are so focussed onspreading information and prevention that the patients suffering from theproblem are neglected. Nobody deals with them and their trauma. They aredriven to commit suicide.''Experts point out that mental health of people needs to be looked at veryseriously. According to them, it is a given that 15 to 20 per cent of peoplesuffering from depression are suicidal and 10 per cent of alcholics too. Butno support systems makes it difficult for them to deal with the problem.Tele counselling, the one network that has managed to reach out to people,also has its limitations. Completely ignoring the urban poor, these servicesonly cater to people who have access to a telephone and can speak eitherHindi or English. And for those who have had the benefit of treatment at amental health institution, rehabilitation becomes the issue. Everyone elseis either struggling to come to terms with their trauma or are choosing todie.The report has thrown up a few new figures, but also lists down all theage-old reasons for suicide. Even today, dowry disputes drive many youngwomen to take the extreme step, unemployed youth constitute a huge chunk ofthe statistics and family problems add to the numbers. The numbers are onrecord now, but experts feel that it is the solutions that need to be lookedat. ``The figures tell us just one part of the story,'' says Solomon. ``Theother part, about health care, the economics of the whole thing and supportsystems need to be looked at.''Every suicide is the story of one person who didn't get help that expertssay needs to be at hand. ``Put mental well being on the agenda'' is theadvice experts hope everyone will take seriously.
