New bill to decriminalise suicide tabled in RS

 One hundred and fifty years after the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was framed, a new piece of legislation has sought to decriminalise suicide. The bill suggests that those who attempt suicide are suffering from a mental illness and need care and treatment rather than prosecution under an archaic law.

Introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, one of the provisions of the Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, is presumption of mental illness in case a person attempts suicide.

According to Section 309 of the IPC, whoever attempts suicide shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or both.

Going against the IPC, section 124 of the new bill states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in section 309 of the IPC, any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed to be suffering from mental illness and shall not be liable for punishment under the said section.”

The government shall have a duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation to a person trying to take his/her own life as he/she is presumed to be suffering from mental illness, it said.

“All suicides are preventable. By decriminalising, the proposed legislation would help bring out a serious mental health issue in the open rather than hiding it under the carpet,” Vikram Patel, a professor of psychiatry in London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told Deccan Herald.

A survey on suicides in India undertaken by Patel, public health researcher Prabhat Jha from the University of Toronto and other colleagues from India and abroad, suggests there were 1,87,000 suicide deaths in India in 2010 (1,15,000 men and 72,000 women) among persons aged 15 years or more.

This is higher than the World Health Organisation’s estimate of 1,70,000 annual suicide deaths.

The government relies on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for national estimates.