Over 7 lakh people die by suicide every year globally, while for every death an additional 10-20 attempts are made (WHO, 2021). From the last three decades suicide rate in India is 10.3% per 100,000. More than one lakh people lose their lives by suicide every year in India (Vijayakumar. L., 2010). Kashmir has a higher suicide rate than UP, Nagaland, Manipur, and Bihar (NCRB, 2019). Kashmir recorded 2612 suicidal deaths from 2010 to 2018, which means on an average 290 people die every year by suicide as per the data of NCRB, Police Crime Branch Record and the reports published in leading English Newspapers. These were the reported cases but what about those cases which never get reported. We cannot deny the fact that social desirability plays its role in our society. Many cases due to social desirability factor remain unheard and not reported, even sometimes people report suicidal cases as an accident case in order to avoid the social stigma which follows.
A study conducted by Soumitra Pathare and Lakshmi Vijaya Kumar (2020) reported that there is a 67.7 percent increase in suicide in India during Covid-19 lockdown. The major negative outcomes of lockdown are financial crises, relationship issues, mental health issues, and mood related disorders particularly depression. Any stressful life event that has potential to change life can take a person into depression. And it is more dangerous if that event persists for longer period of time. Lockdown has changed people’s lives to a large extent. It has turned a normal man into a depressed person. Unfortunately, depression paves way to suicidal behaviour.
It is pertinent to point out that Kashmir has had a history of intermittent lockdowns and shutdowns over the past many decades. However, its nature was intermittent which allowed communities to somehow manage the social and financial crises while at the same time managing the working of all socio-economic institutions, educational institutions and so on. It is going to be 2 years of persistent lockdown putting an end to almost every aspect of human life in Kashmir, which is incomparable to any other state or nation.
Kashmir since 2008 witnessed many lockdowns, internet and tele-communication shutdown for months, causing financial and other crises in the state. Unemployment was already existent at large scale. In August 2019, they put the entire state under strict lockdown and barred every means of communication. When people hoped for lockdown to be lifted, another lockdown was imposed due to Covid-19, in March, 2020 continuing the already 8-month long lockdown. This further marred the hopes of people. Hopelessness being the empirically tested variable of suicide became major factor for the rise of suicidal cases. Distress from hopelessness, unemployment, physical illness, expendability unwanted, and belief that one’s existence is burden on his family leads a person to generate low self-esteem, self-blame/shame and this agitation leads an individual to develop ‘Self-Hate’. According to Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide; liability and self-hate together result in perceived burdensomeness. “Perceived Burdensomeness is a perceptive view of an individual when he feels his existence as a burden on his family, friends, society and other valued groups.” Persistent lockdown has developed into people a sense of both liability as well as self-hate, ultimately leading to Perceived Burdensomeness and Thwarted Belongingness. Liability and self-hate have positive relationship with perceived burdensomeness. Feeling of burdensomeness result in passive suicidal ideation. However, ‘thwarted belongingness’ can be explained in terms of person’s detachment from his family, friends, society or other valued groups when a state of social alienation is developed due to absence of reciprocal care and loneliness. Loneliness occurs when an individual has a little or no social support, non-intact family, late marriage, whereas absence of reciprocal care occurs due to family conflict, loss through death/divorce, domestic violence, or social withdrawal. Therefore, loneliness and absence of reciprocal care leads an individual to thwarted belongingness. According to IPTS (2005) thwarted belongingness have positive correlation with passive suicidal ideation. When an individual simultaneously holds two related but different psychological states— perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness for longer period of time and develop hopelessness regarding these two psychological states, passive suicidal ideation (thoughts about suicide) transforms into active suicidal ideation (continuously thinking about suicide and considering suicide as an option to get rid from the existing problems). Thus, suicidal desires are tumultuously stirred up in an individual.
People lost their family members due to covid-19 pandemic. Lockdown caused financial crises, paving way for many other issues like, domestic violence, family conflict, divorce, so on. These issues have direct or indirect association with suicide as supported by Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide developed by Thomas Joiner (2005).
In order to keep off our society from the menace of suicide, it is high time to take the issue seriously and put efforts for preventive measures. Suicide prevention begins with the identification of symptoms and taking them seriously. Government should take a serious notice of this rising problem and develop interventional programmes to manage and ultimately help people from taking their lives. This could be done by creating awareness among people through various awareness programmes about the symptoms of suicide and prevention within the members of family. Mental Health professionals need to be appointed to identify those people at various levels on risk of suicide. Suicide does not happen all of a sudden, without any prior symptom. If we are able to recognise these symptoms early and provide treatment to such people, the rising suicide rate will decline before it takes complete hold in our society.
Furthermore, at familial level we should keep an observant eye on our young and vulnerable members of family. If any of the symptoms such as suicidal thoughts, isolation preference, hopelessness, thwarted belongingness, burdensomeness, drug abuse, excessive self-carelessness, self-harming, significant change in mood are observed, such person needs to be taken into consultation with mental health professional without wasting much time. If there is any fresh death within the family or a fresh divorce has taken place, the people associated need to be kept under observation while generously interacting with them and properly sympathising with them and if the need persists, they should be consulted with a mental health professional. Suicide of a friend or a near one may develop similar idea of suicide among another person. Sense of failure in relationships or relationship breakups and carrier/education failure may potentially trigger suicide. Individuals with failed suicidal attempt are likely to reattempt, they should be observed well. In these tough times people should give emotional support to each other, sympathise and empathise each other. Mental health professionals should come forward with keen efforts to save lives.
Government has to take serious notice of mental health crisis instigated by lockdown. Lockdown may have controlled Coronavirus but at the same time it has given rise to serious mental health issues. On the one hand if lockdown is meant to save lives but on the other hand it is causing fatal mental health crisis. Prompt efforts are required to deal with this issue.
Imran Hameed Lone is a Ph.D. Research Scholar, Dept. of Psychology, University of Kashmir