Child and Teen Suicides, India
Posted by Starwin on 5th January, 2010
Three back to back suicides cases in Mumbai has shocked India.
11 year old girl Neha Sawant from Dombvili commits suicide because her parents did not allow her to participate in a reality show
13 year old boy from Dadar, Mumbai commits suicide because of academic reasons
20 year medical student commits suicide due to academic reason
India, Suicide Capital of the World: India is the suicide capital of the world. According to medical proof, suicidal tendencies tendencies have been present in 1/3 of people with mild cases of depression and in nearly three quarters of people who are severely depressed. No age, group or social or professional class is exempt from suicide, think of the famous people who have killed themselves. Particularly shocking and by no means rare, is the suicide among young. Out of every three cases of suicide reported every 15 minutes in India, one is committed by a youth in the age group of 15 to 29.
India has the highest number of suicide cases in the world. More than 100,000 people in India die by suicides each year. Here are some more suicide statistics in India:
1. The highest number of suicides and attempted suicides happen in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra. The Crime Bureau Data states that the people who commit maximum suicides include students, housewives, jobless youth and pensioners. For every student who commits suicide, there are 13 who attempt it?
2. Three major reasons for suicide: academic disappointments, relationship failures and financial downfall.
Negative Thoughts that Lead to Suicide
Suicide is unnecessary and the impulse can be rapidly overcome and eliminated with cognitive techniques. Why do depressed people frequently think of suicides and what can be done to prevent these impulses? If you examine the minds of people who are suicidal, a pervasive, pessimistic vision dominates their psyche. Life seems to be nothing more than a hellish nightmare. As they look into the past, all they can remember are negative thoughts and suffering. Your unrealistic sense of hopeless is one of the most crucial factors in the development of a serious suicidal wish. You jump to the conclusion that your problems are insoluble
LET ME REPEAT THAT YOU ARE WRONG
Assessing suicidal thoughts in a cognitive manner: Discuss your suicidal impulses with a counselor or someone who know can be mature enough to help you out. All suicidal thoughts and actions have to be taken very seriously. Ask yourself, “ Do I believe that I have absolutely no chance of getting better? Do I feel that I have exhausted all possibilities and have lost all hope? Do I feel that my suffering is unending and there is no end to my woes?” If your answer is ‘yes’ to all of these questions, then YOU MUST SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP
In India, it is believed that if you go to a psychiatrist, you are mad. That mindset has to be changed. You cannot just depend on yourself to fight your own demons when you are totally heart-broken. Schools, colleges and offices should have prompt and hands-on counseling to their members
High risk group for suicides:
1. Severe depression
2. Past history of suicide attempts
3. If there are no deterrents to hold you back(family, friends or religious beliefs)
Parental Pressures major cause of child suicides
Sad but true.. parents are responsible for giving children lives and in some odd ways, even taking their lives. No parent wants to kill her kids, but they do so by setting unrealistic goals in front of them. Every parent wants her children to be the best and the brightest; they are but not necessarily in the areas that their parents set their eyes upon. Parents believe that they are thinking good for their children, but they are actually thinking good ‘according to their perception’ There is a generation gap now, let’s face it. Parents are not always right. What they think is right, may not be right for their children. As a parent, you are a guide to a student, not an owner of his life.
Flawed Education System: Major Reason for Child and Teen Suicide:
Scrape the education system that enforces on ‘mugging up’ rather than making a child understand the subject in totality. The system of rating, testing and marks need to be scraped. We don’t need competition at the cost of losing lives. Rusticate teachers who are insensitive with children. Also how many 90 + plus percenters have actually done great jobs in their lives. You see their happy smiling faces on the newspaper headlines, when the SSC, HSC results are out. But no one knows what happened to them 5 years later. I can give examples of several so called failures that have beaten these so called nerds who got 99/100 in 10th grades. So ratings and grades is by no means, a measure of intelligence. May be retention, but definitely not knowledge.
Most of the colleges in India have namesake counseling centers, which are locked most of the times. Why does our education system look down upon a child who is caught copying and treat her like an out-caste? Can you imagine the shock the child goes through, the embarrassment of being torn apart by her parents, by her teachers and by everyone she knows? Obviously, the child will try to seek an end to the misery.
Do not blame the movies: Movies may be a trigger but the bullets are already loaded in the form of the negative thoughts that fill up the child’s brain. If it wasn’t a movie scene, he would have killed himself anyway by reading a novel or hearing about someone who committed suicide.
Observe these changes in children who are suicide prone
1. Total withdrawal and non interaction with people
2. Change in day to day activity pattern
3. Continuous claims of having an urge to end one’s life
4. If a person runs to an isolated place to cry often or looks continually lost or depressed, there is a feeling that something is wrong.
About crimes of abetting suicide
Section 306 of IPC states that If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to a fine.
Under section 107 of IPC, a person is guilty of abetment of suicide only if instigates someone to do the thing, engages with one or more persons to do the thing, intentionally aids its commitment or facilitates the act. The police cannot arrest the last person the suicide victim spent time with, on the grounds of suspicion. If that is the case, then every psychiatrist, whom the suicide victim talks to before killing himself, should be arrested. Even if there is an argument, it cannot be construed as an act to facilitate suicide. The act of the accused should be intentional before the law to arrest the accused.
Can the police arrest anyone on the grounds of suspicion?
The police can arrest only if the arrest is absolutely necessary to arrive at the truth. The Supreme Court had warned the police in the 1994 Joginder Kumar case that the police must not arrest anyone on the grounds of mere suspicion of participation in an offence. The Bombay Police Act Section 147 can prosecute the police for unnecessarily arresting someone. The police can instead call the suspect for questioning; gather evidence and when there is enough of it (evidence), arrest him.
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Comments
This a very good report & data for them who doing research on suicides.
It has been found that each parent want the child to get laurel in educatiob. This creates tension in childern. Pl remember that virtues are not only educatiob but other qualities of life.
Dr. Oza