There is little wisdom in saying that we all, with some exceptions, love ourselves the most and would do everything to avoid the slightest of pain to self. If so, then what drives some to snuff out their own lives so suddenly and so painfully at that?

One of the foremost visible reasons contributing to suicides requiring no cerebral hair-splitting is grinding poverty in the country. Starvation and suicides indeed live cheek-by-jowl. Though the same may be true of developed nations like Japan, America, Britain,Germany and others recording a high rate of suicides for reasons other than poverty. Indeed, a rich man with acute depression may at times be more prone to commit suicide than his poor peer. 

One of the most unambiguous and brutal factors forcing men, women and children to killing frontiers in India is hunger alone. The (in)famous Kalahandi in Orrisa -- which has now ironically turned out to be a “poverty tourism spot” flocked by foreigners -- has several other competing zones in the country with a 28 crore below poverty line population. What does one say for a district in the eastern Uttar Pradesh of Gazipur where an entire community of dalit “musahars” tend to live on the brink of starvation with children reportedly eating raw “bhindi” to drive their hunger away.

Similarly, draught-hit seven districts of Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda and Chitrakoot in the south-western UP with about 50 per cent crop failure (like in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh) were driving “starvation-suicide” during 2005. In many tribal districts in the county, people have even survived by consuming “poisonous roots” only to “satisfy their hunger.” Poverty and consequent injustice in its most heart rending ramifications also provide little options to men, women and small children but to embrace “the other world”. Instances of poverty-stricken mothers along their “unaffordable” girl-children jumping into rivers have repeatedly come from Bihar, West Bengal and UP and other states.

Chilling examples of young innocent girls, particularly from poor and backward and dalit communities, taking to immolation after humiliation of rape and physical abuse are of daily occurrence which incidently also reflects a complete inadequacy of justice delivery system in the country. It is a yet another story that suicides by dalits have continued to spiral up despite “caste based parties” claiming to champion their cause.

The abysmal failure of the successive governments to tackle the debt burden incurred by farmers due to failure of crops, growing costs of cultivation, and shrinking yield are contributing to the rural suicides. The brazenness of political parties to use the farmers’ suicide as an issue to score electoral points has only led to the worsening of the situation, particularly in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Nuclear families

Suicides in India have also reasons other than poverty and could be listed as --unfulfilled goals, break down in family relations, domestic violence, academic failures, wide gap in aspirations and their fulfillment and the romantic notions which died young. The disintegration of traditional social support mechanisms as was prevalent in joint families, emergence of a trend towards nuclear families, alcohol abuse, financial instability and family dysfunction are other causes which have pushed several individuals to the margins.

The “acquired life style” in the urban settings is unwittingly forcing a large section of middle class and their children on the killer road of consumerism leading to high stress levels  and frustration. School going children who are forced to “match the competitive expectations” of parents are always living on the edge, ready to snap their lifelines. The ever increasing  consumerist drive and half-baked Western influence has only added to the crisis of  the youth who are yet to come to terms with their mixed up modern identity.

No doubt, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has noted that out of every three cases of suicide reported every 15 minutes in the country, one involves a youth in the age group of 15 to 29. “Youth and middle-aged (30 to 44 years) are the prime groups taking recourse to the path of suicide. Of the total suicide victims, around 37.6 per cent are youths in the age group of 15 to 29 years,” the Bureau said in a report.

The worrying factor is that all India rate of suicide is not exactly sliding down. More than one lakh persons (1,13,914) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2005. This showed a marginal increase of 0.2 per cent over the pervious year’s figure (1,13,697).The number of suicides in the country during the decade (1995 - 2005) has recorded an increase of 27.7 per cent (from 89,178 in 1995 to 1,13,914 in 2005). 

Interestingly, South India -- economically a shade better off than the northern cow belt- has a dubious distinction of having the world’s largest number of suicides by young people, according to the Lancet, the respected British medical journal. Stress and the consequent depression remains one of the biggest killer agents in a majority of suicide cases among the starving or the affluent classes. “The dream of  happiness” has seemingly eluded the rich as much as the poor classes.