Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

No big increase in suicide rate

Staff Reporter

Many districts are showing slight decline

Thiruvananthapuram: Suicide rate in many districts is showing slight decline, according to the latest official figures. The State's suicide rate too does not reflect steep increase. The current rate of suicide in Kerala is 27.9 (per one lakh population), as against the figure of 27.7 in 2004.

In fact, the declining trend can be seen in the figures for Idukki and Wayanad, where a large number of farmers committed suicide. The suicide rate in Idukki, which was the highest in the State at 51 (per one lakh population) in 2003, went down to 42.4 in 2004 and is currently at 40.25. In Wayanad too, the suicide rate went down from 45 in 2003 to 38.02 in 2005.

Thiruvananthapuram is the lone district which has been showing an upward trend in suicides consistently since 1995. The suicide rate in the district, which was 17.2 per one lakh population in 1995, has gone up to 37.

Social scientists, psychologists and the Government should take serious note of this and study the reasons behind the steep increase in suicide rate.

In 2005, however, quite `mysteriously', Kollam topped all districts with a suicide rate of 42.39.

The figures were presented at the World Mental Health Day observations in the capital, organised by the Department of Health and the State Mental Health Authority on Tuesday. Governor R.L. Bhatia inaugurated the public function. The theme for the Mental Health Day this year is "Building awareness, reducing risks: Mental illness and suicide".

Presenting the State scenario, Secretary of the State Mental Health Authority D. Raju said suicides were under-reported in the State and that the actual figure might be much higher than what was quoted in police records. For every suicide that was reported, there might be several attempted suicides which were not reported or which did not get into official records.

The fact that Malappuram, a predominant Muslim area, consistently showed the lowest suicide rate in the State. This might point to the fact that religion had a major influence in the social and psychological make-up of people. In Jammu and Kashmir, the suicide rate was just 1 per one lakh population, Dr. Raju said.

In Kerala, about 60 per cent of suicides were committed by those in the 30-59 age group. Children and young married women too constitute a good percentage of those who commited suicide. About 21 per cent of all suicides were by those between 15 and 29 years, of which young housewives constituted 25 per cent. Only one per cent with less than 14 years of age committed suicide in the State.

Dr. Raju said globally, suicides were more among unmarried individuals, while in Kerala, 75.5 per cent of those who committed suicides were married people. Marital stress was found to be quite high in Kerala and this was clearly linked to factors like adjustment problems, mental incompatibility, dowry problems and consequently hostile family environs.

This was because marriage was considered more as a social obligation rather than the genuine desire to live together.

Sadly, marriage was often seen as the solution for many social, behavioural problems of individuals and none bothers to find out if a person was fit to be married, Dr. Raju said. Pre-marital counselling was important, he said.

Records of the State Crime Records Bureau noted that 15.1 per cent of all suicides in the State last year were due to mental illness, while 28.7 per cent were due to `family problems'. Clinically, mental illness was the primary reason for suicides and even those deaths attributed to family problems should be seen as a reflection of the poor mental health of individuals, Dr. Raju said.

The youth today were poorly equipped to deal with the changed socio-economic situations and competitive and ruthless lifestyles of the times.

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