India must tackle high suicide rate says prof
India is racing against time to tackle the extraordinary numbers of young people who are taking their own lives.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and incredible 190,000 suicides were recorded in 2010 in India, second only to China.
And a new report published last week in international medical journal The Lancet said suicide, after transportation, is now the second most common cause of death among India’s young people.
The Lancet study suggests that suicide, if not adequately checked, would overtake maternal mortality as the major cause of death among 15-to-29-year-old Indian women.
The problem is most prevalent in wealthier parts of the country. “Young educated Indians from the richer states are killing themselves in numbers that are almost the highest in the world,” report co-author Prof Vikram Patel told the AFP news agency.
In a follow-up interview with Metro Éireann, Prof Patel of the Centre for Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – who is based in Goa, India – said the study found higher levels of suicide among those who had completed secondary school than those who had just a primary education.
He said a combination of social factors, such as interpersonal conflict; domestic violence, in the case of women; unemployment; and alcohol abuse are driving young people to take their own lives.
Prof Patel said criminalisation of suicide in India is not helpful, adding that it has contributed to underreporting of the issue.
He also said that the suicide rate could be reduced via adequate provision of access to community and support services, and education of rural communities – especially on the storage and control of pesticides, which have played a role in many suicide attempts.
