INTERACTION: Bangalore Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao (second from left) and Vice-Chancellor of NIMHANS D. Nagaraja speaking to the participants at the seminar on `Suicide prevention in India,' in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: V. Sreeniva sa Murthy

Bangalore: Fifty-seven per cent of suicides are sudden acts of frustration. Those who attempt or commit suicide begin to think about suicide three years before the actual attempt. Sixty-eight per cent of family members of suicide victims had no clue that such an attempt would be made by one of their family members.

These statistics were quoted by G. Gururaj in his speech on "Suicide as a public health problem" on Saturday. The National Institute of Mental Heath and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) had organised a series of lectures on "Suicide prevention in India" as part of World Suicide Prevention Day.

"It is not a personal or financial crisis that leads a person to commit suicide, but it is the failure to explore further options," Dr. Gururaj said.

Defining suicide as an intentional or voluntary determination to end one's life, he said rapid socio-economic changes without an adequate social support network could be a major reason.

Suicides once seen as a problem of the old and the sick were now seen in the 15 to 44 age group, he said. People who commit suicide were not mentally ill, but simply could not face the humiliation and adversities of life, he said.

No suicide intervention programme had been drawn up, he said. "Understanding the causes of suicide is central to designing prevention programmes. But the area is quite hazy to attempt a clear understanding," Dr. Gururaj said.

Stating that the number of suicides in Karnataka was the highest in the country for the past several years, he said that more than 12,000 people committed suicide in the State every year.

The suicide rate among men was higher than in women, Dr. Gururaj said.

He said that even though 1,500 people committed suicide in Bangalore every year, an analysis of police records revealed that the cause for 80 per cent of them was not known.

Of the 4,000 deaths reported as suicides, 70 per cent were due to chronic stomach pain, he said. The police did not wish to pursue the matter further and trouble the family at a time of crisis and so they reported it as a medically untreatable problem and closed the matter, he said.

Calling for an end to decriminalising suicide, he said, "the more legal pressures we put, the more it will be pushed under the carpet and not be discussed."

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