Contemplating Suicide

Editorial-
Sikkim leads the country in suicide rates at 29.1 suicides per lakh of population. Taking Sikkim’s population of a little over 6 lakhs, this worked out to 181 suicides in the 2012 [as per NCRB data]. This is not new news. In fact, when the statistic was released a few months back, it had made headlines. While Sikkim topping the country in suicide rate [for a second time since 2010] was shocking, the data in itself was significantly lower from the number of suicides reported in Sikkim in the year 2010, when, with a suicide rate of 48.2 per lakh, Sikkim had first dislodged Kerala as the suicide capital of the country. The numbers notwithstanding, suicides remain a worry. Today’s newspaper carries news of two suicides – one by a person who had come to Sikkim to set up a Biswakarma Puja pandal, and another of a woman who did not live to be 30.
Suicides have been a worrying social challenge for a while now in Sikkim and the ignominy of becoming the State with the highest suicide rate should now reinforce the resolve to approach the problem from two sides – understanding and prevention. It is unfortunate that despite having such a high suicide rate, there is still no scientifically established explanation for it. The latest NCRB report informs that no one committed suicide in Sikkim due to either poverty or bankruptcy. Illness, drug abuse and family problems were some of the main reasons recorded for suicides in Sikkim, the report contends. These of course are based on police reports on the suicide cases and would be superficial. All that is available by way of any reliable explanation is that suicide cases result from untreated psychiatric conditions. Even this is too simplistic and attracts the immediate deduction that the way to contain this is to make mental healthcare more accessible. Of course there are also the politically-laced insinuations which, apart from being irrational, are also extremely insensitive towards the memory of lives lost to suicide, to be even discussed with any seriousness beyond the coteries in which they are voiced. Meanwhile, what is missing in Sikkim’s approach towards tackling suicides thus far is any genuine effort to understand the triggers which are spiking mental illnesses to a level where the State reports a suicide every alternate day on average [and many suicides are not even reported as such]. Access to mental healthcare is undoubtedly necessary, but for long-term solutions, the State needs to first unravel what is compromising the psychiatric health of the people so extensively. This is important, because adequate solutions can then be fashioned. It is obvious that the State Government would be keen to implement policy decisions if they help prevent suicides; but that would require the experts to first explain the reasons behind suicides in Sikkim.
While on the topic, one wonders what happened of the State Government initiative of 2010 when a conference of the leading minds from the fields of Science & Spirituality was held in Gangtok. Inaugurated by the Dalai Lama, the conference was projected to lay the foundations for a more complete education of the young, ensuring a more stable rooting in morality and ethics which will also imbibe them with a more positive outlook and reinforce them better against the complications and vicissitudes of modern lifestyles; something which present day classrooms, with the pressure of completing syllabuses and recommending tuitions, cannot ensure.
The young, if introduced through a scientific and structured curriculum to the strength of moral and ethical virtues and how these reinforce each other, will stand a better chance of growing up with better emotional regulation, improved attention, increased calm and resilience, better stress management and coping skills and with refined compassion and empathy. Won’t there have been welcome attributes in these disquieting times of runaway addiction, suicides and other social maladjustment issues among the young?