“Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely takes the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, dramatically affecting the lives of families, friends and communities.” These are the first few words in the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on ‘Suicides in India’ for the year 2019, published on Tuesday.
While the total number of suicides reported across the country last year stood at 1,39,133, Tamil Nadu took the second place after Maharashtra with 13,439 cases, including 4,250 women and eight members of the third gender. A majority of victims were in the age group of 18-45 and educated. The State took second place for the third year.
Tamil Nadu reported the maximum of 16 cases of mass/family suicides involving the deaths of 43 persons followed by Andhra Pradesh (4 cases, 36 deaths), Kerala (11 cases, 24 deaths) and Rajasthan (7 cases, 22 deaths), data revealed.
The State reported that 2,501 persons ended their lives owing to illness. As many as 2,501 people took the extreme step due to career or business setbacks, and 215 students died after failing in exams. Among metros, Chennai reported the highest number of 2,461 suicides in the country, followed by Delhi with 2,423 cases.
Data showed that 6,843 people decided to end their lives due to family problems. Tamil Nadu had the highest number of 219 suicides by people who could not endure the death of their dear ones. Over 500 people, mostly women, died by suicide due to marriage issues and 656 others killed themselves unable to handle complications arising out of love affairs. Suicides attributed to drug abuse and addiction to alcohol were put at 1,042 cases.
The national data revealed that five States — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka — accounted for 49.5% of the suicides reported in the country.
Media’s role
Chennai-based psychiatrist Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, also founder of Sneha, a suicide prevention centre where volunteers offer unconditional support for the distressed, depressed or suicidal, said media had a crucial role to play.
Since sensational reporting of suicides could trigger copycat incidents, the media should practice sensible portrayal of such cases. Referring to the suicide of actor Robin Williams in 2014, she said there was an 18% increase in the number of suicide of men in the celebrity’s age group using the same method.
Referring to the World Health Organisation’s ‘World Suicide Report’, Dr. Vijayakumar, who is one of the authors, said reducing access to the means of suicide, reducing alcohol availability and consumption and a more sensible portrayal of suicides by the media were among the three key universal strategies to prevent suicides.
Madurai-based psychiatrist C. Ramasubramanian said every suicide was a cry for help and in many incidents, victims showed clear signs of unhappiness or extreme stress before ending their lives.
Psychological autopsy
Psychological autopsy, an in-depth study of the circumstances and sequence of events that led to a person to take the extreme step, often revealed in many cases that they showed classic behavioural changes like calling friends more often to enquire about their well-being and advising them to take good care of family, giving away priced possessions to relatives or fiends, visiting educational institutions where they studied, meeting childhood friends and spending lavishly for no valid or known reason.9
“Suicides denote a pathological situation which sometimes runs in the family too. However, this is not a problem of an individual or family but directly relates to society. Every individual, particularly family members, friends and teachers, is a stakeholder who has the responsibility to create awareness among people they know that suicide is never a solution to any problem,” Dr. Ramasubramanian said.
(People in need of counselling can reach out to the State’s health helpline 104 or Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)
