India and the High Suicide Rates

Hearing about suicides is common yet shocking for each one of us. While, UN in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), marked World Suicide Prevention Day on 10^th September, it was depressing to learn how India is one of the top countries in the world, when it comes to the number of suicides taking place every year.

Some commit suicide due to the pressure of their education and then there are others committing suicide due to unresolved love matters. There are many others who think suicide to be the only way out, when their parents scold them in maybe a higher pitch than normal. Basically, we can conclude all this to a word called ‘pressure’, love pressure, education pressure or family pressure.

The upcoming generations have become emotionally fragile and have started taking a lot of stress about anything that is normally bound to happen in one’s life circle. The suicide rates recorded by the National Crime Records bureau are horrific and Puducherry from the past five years has been at the top when it comes to the highest suicide rates in the country.

According to the National Crime Records bureau, there were 1,33,623 suicides in 2015. There were 15 suicides every hour and 371 suicides per day. The age group of the people committing and attempting suicides generally lies between 15 and 29 years. Even after signing the WHO resolution of reducing the suicide rates by 10%, India seems to fail on working over it.

“Hearing about suicides is actually very normal for everybody these days and what I feel is that the parents have stopped giving proper time to their child because of which the child keep things to himself and finally ends up by committing suicide.” says Karen, an English honors student at Delhi University.

“I think the government needs to put forth more awareness programs and simultaneously the parents need to devote more time to their children. The family has a more important role to play here than the government.” says Ghazala, another student of Delhi University.

The government needs to work on more awareness programs for the same especially for the parents to know what is it exactly that leads their child to such awful activities. The school of the child also plays a major role in developing the personality of a child and schools should also conduct meaningful programs and make sure that education becomes a happy tool of learning for the child and not a stress marker.