Prevention of Suicides

Ashok Sharma
Over the recent past,there has been a sudden spurt in incidents of suicides in the country in general and our state in particular is a matter of grave concern. Everyday newspapers are full of reports where people, especially teenagers and middle aged people commit suicides or make abortive bids to end their lives by consuming poisonous substances, hanging from trees/fans and other means. The Government,the psychologists and the civil society in general have a collective responsibility to ponder over the cause of surge in suicide attempts and take measures to prevent such extreme acts.It is a fact that in the fast and materialistic age, the noble values such as tolerance, compassion, empathy, selfless service etc have become a rare commodity.
People in general, and our youth,in particular, have high aspirations and unrealistic ambitions but many of them are not fully equipped with proper skills and strong will power to face the harsh realities of life. They often lack the tenacity, perseverance and moral strength to fulfil their cherished dreams and a small failure or incident may provoke them to take the extreme step to end their life. The reasons for suicide are many and varied.People may tend to commit suicide over failure in exams/ business, marital conflict, prolonged disease, mental illness, sexual abuse, death of a loved one, being  jobless for a long time, problems such as depression, alcoholism, schizophrenia etc, Sometimes farmers commit suicide due to failure of crops or their inability to repay the debt. There have also been examples os rich and famous people including models,actresses, bureaucrats etc. who have attempted/commited suicides.The reports of some security personnel making suicide bids also ocassionally figure in the newspapers. The famous sociologist Emile Durkheim in his book ‘Suicide’ classified suicide into three types.  Anomic suicide when the disintegrating forces make individuals feel lost oralone.The suicides commited by children who are sextually abused come in this category.Altruistic suicides happen when there is excessive regulation of individuals by social forces. Egoistic suicide happens when people feel totally detached from the society.Suicides commited by the elderly people who lose family ties come under this category.
Whatever may be the cause, suicide is among the top three causes of death in the world and everybody-parents, teachers, mental health practitioners and the society in general have a major role to play in the prevention of suicides.Parents need to keep a close watch over their children and as soon as they notice change in behaviour,attitude in their child,they should take it as the warning signs and start keeping a close supervision over his/ her activities and try to help him/ her in solving conflicts.They should spend more time with their children and try to find out their causes of stress and conflict guide them properly. They should ensure that means of suicide such as pesticides,guns etc are kept away from the access of the children. They need to equip their children with problem solving skills and consult a doctor immediately when they notice any warning signs in their child.Such children should never be left alone.
The school,too has an important role to play in preventing suicide bids of its students.Students spend a lot of time in the schools and the atmosphere in the schools exercises a profound impact on the personality of the students.So the schools should maintain such an atmospheree that every student feels safe and secure and enjoys study.As soon as the school teacher/counsellor detects some mental or psychological problem in a student,he should inform the parents immediately.The parents, in turn, need to maintain close liason with the school and act acording.to the advice/ recommendations of the school psychologist/ counsellor.Moreover, community based suicide prevention programmes need to be organised quite frequuently to reassure government’s help in times of calamities such as famines, droughts, earthquakes etc.The people must be taught to face up life as it comes and not to resort to extreme steps to escape from the realities of life.Those suffering from sexual abuse,chronic diseases,trauma of the death of a loved one etc need to be provided the help of a psychotherapist.
Suicide is considered to be an escape from life but the family and the loved ones are left to bear the weight of the departed and pain of loss. Life is the most beautiflul gift from God and everybody should enjoy life to their full.There may be times of tension and stress but one ought to take such testing times as challanges and make use of willpower and available resources to meet such challanges for better days ahead.
(The writer is serving as lecturer in English in Govt.Hr.Sec. School, Barolla( Udhampur)

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