‘Efforts needed to address rising suicides’

Experts highlight poverty, injustice, unemployment, forced marriages as common reasons

HYDERABAD: The rising incidence of suicide in the province has drawn the concern of academics, with experts calling for coordinated efforts from the government, civil society and other support organisations to address the problem.

"Suicide is essentially an individual's protest against what happened to him or her against his or her will, choice or liking," Sindh University vice chancellor Prof Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat observed at a webinar arranged by the varsity on Thursday.

Highlighting poverty, injustice, unemployment, failure and forced marriages as some of the commonly reported causes of suicide, Dr Burfat underscored the need for academic research to study such motivators and suggest remedies for these fatal tendencies.

Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP) chief executive Noor Muhammad Bajeer disclosed during the webinar that 54 suicide incidents were reported in Mirpurkhas, much of which consists of desert areas, in the ongoing month alone.

Meanwhile, psychiatrist Dr Shahnawaz Dal said that curable mental conditions such as anxiety, depression and a sense of alienation often provoked people to take their lives. He quoted the findings of a local study which points to forced marriages among the Hindu community of Mirpurkhas division as one of the common drivers behind suicides in the area.

"The state cannot ignore the grave problem of suicide," insisted Tanveer Jahan, the Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD) director, suggesting that the government should fund projects aimed at mitigating the problem.

Umerkot deputy commissioner Nadeemur Rehman Memon added that a rise in suicides had been observed in the district in the last three years, claiming that 50 people took their lives in 2018, 72 people in 2019 and 41 in just the first five months of this year. "Borrowing money with high mark-up rates is one of the major elements triggering such incidents," he opined.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2020.