High suicide rate in Kashmir valley alarming,experts sounds alarm
Sahil Gulzar
SRINAGAR — An increasing number of suicides is an alarming situation in Kashmir valley and a matter of concern these days. It is a social evil and threat to mankind and humanity itself as a whole. Suicide estimates suggest fatalities worldwide could rise to 1.5 million by the year 2020.
Suicide is a slur on Society and even State of Jammu & Kashmir has not been left untouched by the menace of suicides. It is not unusual to see the reports of suicides in daily newspapers. The purpose of the present study is to find out the role of newspapers in highlighting the increased suicide rates in the Kashmir valley.
According to studies 79 per cent of the urban and rural population in the Valley suffers from depression. Anxiety, stress and depression are some of the factors that contribute to suicide. Suicide is also more prevalent in teenagers and youngsters, especially females.’
Figures suggest that teenage girls, boys and married women committed suicides in the past three months. The medicos say the pandemic has resulted in immense stress among the people especially young boys and girls besides marital feuds too have shown a spurt.
The erstwhile state recorded a total of 7,000 cases between 1990 and 2021, reveals the data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
As per the NCRB’s annual report of 2019 titled ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’, there were 287 suicides in J&K in 2017, which rose to 330 in 2018.
In 2019 however, the number dropped marginally, but the region still recorded 284 suicides during that year.
Experts blame the eruption of the armed conflict in Jammu and Kashmir in the late ’90s which has particularly taken a heavy toll on life and property in Kashmir valley for the rise in the number of suicides in the region of late.
Dr Yasir Ahmad Rather, Consultant Psychiatrist and Associate Professor at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) GMC Srinagar expressed concern over the sudden rise in the number of suicides in J&K particularly in Kashmir, given its past history.
“If we go back to a few decades, suicide rate in Kashmir was as low as 0.5 per lakh population- at par with Kuwait’s 0.1/ 1 lakh population-and which is considered to be the lowest in the whole world,” said Dr Yasir.
The armed conflict, which has been more concentrated in the valley, and mental health issues are contributing to the rising number of suicides in the valley, he said.
Dr Yasir observed that there is an increase in deliberate self harm and suicidal ideation in adolescents and early adults making them more vulnerable to suicide.
He also blamed depression, anxiety, child sexual abuse, impulsive personality and even drug abuse as the causal factors for suicides adding that family history of psychiatric illness or suicide can also be contributing factors.
The prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to emotional and financial drain, instability in jobs, uncertainty, depressive and anxiety features, too has created a perfect setting for suicides more, Dr Yasir said.
He however suggested that suicide, like any other illness, can be prevented through proper intervention.
He urged the stakeholders including parents and teachers to fix responsibility so as to prevent suicides from turning into an epidemic.
Dr Arshad Hussain, a psychiatrist from the state’s only Psychiatric Diseases Hospital said that Doctors in Kashmir Valley don’t doubt that more than two decades of warfare have left the locals depressed, fatigued, traumatized and broken. The rate of suicide has gone up 26-fold, from .5 per 100,000 before the insurgency to 13 per 100,000 now.
Valley’s renowned mental health expert Dr Arshid told that media has a very important role to play and motivate people to approach the medical experts for treatments rather than portraying the scary stories forcing people to take extreme steps which that become a tool for many others.
“We know of hundreds of people who come for treatment after developing suicide tendencies but after the treatment, most of them live happily. Anybody having such thoughts such should seek help immediately since it’s a momentary thing,” Dr Arshid said.
Sharing his experience of a 15-year-old patient, Dr Arshid said the patient was suffering from serious depression but after the treatment is living a normal happy life.
“Life is very precious don’t waste it, seek treatment, ” he said.
Dr Rakesh Bamal, a well known mental health expert who is also a Physiatrist at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu said that suicide is the second-largest cause of death among people across the globe and it’s believed that it will surpass and become first in the next 10 years (2030) across the globe.
He said that the suicide cases among students are showing a surge as there is an increase in stress level in them.
“There are many reasons behind suicide including mental health, depression, disorder even those who are indulged in drugs have a high suicide tendency rate besides physical illness in an individual,” he said. “Many factors also include social reasons as well as financial loss, love affair, exam failure, and others.”
Suggesting people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, Bamal said that people must take good care of mental health as the post-Covid scenario may have been a reason for more suicide cases.
“All such things can be eliminated by a healthy lifestyle with high nutrition and timely required actions by consuming sufficient food well on time,” he said.
“People just need to do physical and mental exercises regularly and be more social and fulfil hobbies on a priority basis,” he said. “It’s not wrong to share about your mental health and depression with someone. It is rather a good step to seek help well on time”, he said.
“We need to interact with the person getting socially isolated and not to believe the old societal myths. Some are undergoing all such symptoms and people around them fail to understand even when the affected ones make attempts to express,” Bamal said.
Bamal said that family members need to be vigilant and try to understand the change in their members.
“People need to do relaxation activities and when required they must approach the medical professionals for the consultation immediately without any delay,” he said.
A doctor at SMHS hospital said “Women are far more sensitive and emotionally weaker than men. They have lesser tolerance levels than men, which explains why a higher number of persons who commit suicide belong to the fairer sex”.
They said most of the women, who committed suicide, were generally fed up with marital discord in their lives.
“There might be some young girls also who committed suicide due to failed family issues, depression. There is need for a support system to check the trend of rising suicides,” they added.
They said ready availability of pesticides and other drugs was also a factor in high incidence of suicides.
“Sometimes drug abuse, like anti-depressants, can also lead to death. In such cases, one cannot be sure whether the death was accidental or intentional,” he added.
A doctor at SKIMS hospital said, “Persistent conflict between parents can affect a child’s mental health. It hinders emotional and psychological growth of a child and can impact their ability to form future relationships.”
“In extreme cases, they may develop suicidal feelings.”
“If we compare Kashmir to western societies the rate is less, but among Muslim societies the suicides in Kashmir are very high -the highest, she says. The reasons are turmoil, modernization, unemployment, business failures etc,” she says. Suicide is haram-prohibited in Islam.
Saima Bashir, a senior mental therapist working with a leading NGO in Kashmir, said that since March, Kashmir has reported growing incidents of domestic violence, which forces women to take extreme step. “This is because male folk was confined to homes which resulted to more arguments, verbal duals, which ultimately added to the mental depression of women forcing them to develop suicidal tendencies,” she said.
Reducing suicide requires a collective, concerted effort from all groups in the society. It high time for Jammu & Kashmir Government to initiate a Mental Health Programme which involves reducing the availability of and access to pesticides, reducing alcohol availability and consumption, promoting responsible media reporting of suicide and related issues, promoting and supporting NGOs, involving religious leaders, improving the capacity of primary care workers and specialist mental health services and providing support to those bereaved by suicide, providing psychiatric evaluation and treatment to people who have attempted suicide, training teachers, police officers and practitioners of alternative system of medicine and faith healers. All these steps can help to mitigate the problem of suicides in Jammu & Kashmir.