Alarming rise in suicide cases

As per the World Health Organisation fact-file for every successful suicide there are about 20 cases of attempted suicide. No wonder, committing suicide is often referred to as taking the `extreme step'. Ending one's life is after all not an easy thing and requires desperation, courage and tact.

In Delhi, the incidence of suicide is assuming alarming proportions primarily because the reasons for which people are ending their lives are now becoming more and more frivolous. Worse, while till about two decades ago this was supposed to be the domain of the elderly, now children and women appear to have taken the lead in this pursuit of death.

Take the case of eight-year-old Rahul, who committed suicide by hanging from the window of his Badarpur house in South Delhi on June 5, only to traumatise his four-year-old sister, Guddi, who had dared to tear some pages from his copy.

After slapping Guddi and tying her hands with a chunni, he had ordered her to wash the utensils as punishment. But when the girl paid no heed to his commands, Rahul decided that to threaten her and tied one end of the chunni to the window grill and the other around his neck and climbed a folding cot. He then instructed Pooja to clean the utensils, lest he hung himself. The prank backfired when the noose somehow actually got tightened.

Noted psychologist, Dr. Sandeep Vohra, says such cases are caused by exposure of children to uninhibited violence on television. ``The impressionable minds are unable to explain logically such situations and take strange steps. Moreover, the home environment also has a bearing on the child's overall attitude.''

As per the National Crime Records Bureau there are 20 known reasons for suicide and 13 known methods of ending one's life. And in the recent past Delhi has seen just about all of there. On July 1, frustrated at her inability to give birth to a child, a 30-year-old woman set herself onfire in South-West Delhi.

Two days later, a 17-year-old girl hung herself at her North East Delhi after failing in one of the two supplementary tests in which she had appeared following her failure in the Class 11 examination.

The inability to perform well in examinations also forced a 15- year-old boy of Tughlakabad village to end his life on July 6. Amit had been in depression ever since he failed in his Class IX examination. Though there are some counselling groups for students, which get activated around examination and result time, and offer advice on phone, the benefits of these helplines do not reach the lower strata.

Like failure, illness is also a major cause of suicide. On July 4 a 16-year-old polio victim and daughter of a U.P. police personnel shot herself with her father's service revolver in North East Delhi. Owing to her ailment she had been depressed for the past few months.

The next day, a 38-year-old employee of the Ministry of Defence, who had been depressed due to a prolonged ailment, jumped off the 10th floor of Seva Bhawan at R.K. Puram in South-West Delhi. A Data Entry Operator, Veena, left behind a suicide note stating the cause of her taking the step.

Incidentally, financial loss is also known to be a major cause of suicide. A number of suicides by those who lost money in lottery had made headlines a couple of years ago. And following the stock market crash in March this year, Delhi had witnessed the suicide by four members of a stock broker's family in West Delhi.

The incidence of suicide is highest in the 15-29 year age-group and while in this segment that male-female ratio is also equal, in the 30-44 year age-group the ratio changes dramatically with nearly three men dying for every two women. The biggest cause of suicide continues to be family problems with illness, poverty and bankruptcy also rating as major reasons.

While containing impulsive suicides can be a tough ask, planned suicides can be checked. Dr Vohra says talking to the depressed and providing them solutions out of difficult situations can help. ``A therapist can, for example, help a man who has suffered a financial loss realise that he could start again with a loan.''

The psychologist points out that an important criteria in such cases is the ``genetic disposition'' of the person concerned. ``Genes play an important role in determining whether a person remains depressed or not. We advise people with a family background to remain cheerful and relaxed.''

In Delhi, about a 1,000 suicides take place each year and the figure has been hovering around the mark for quite some time. It is probably the fact that suicides are fewer and far between in the highly educated regment that the rate is comparatively low in the Capital city.

Still, the figure remains a cause of concern to the police as it bloats the crime statistics. Suicide, attempt to suicide and abetment to suicide all constitute offences under the Indian Penal Code.

The police, which initiates investigations under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on receiving information on an inopportune death, believe that suicides should not be included in IPC crime. But the March 1996 judgment by a five- judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court declaring that `Attempt to Commit Suicide' or its abetment is a penal offence seems to have put the matter to rest.

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

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