jiah khan – The Metrognome

This week has been an eye-opener on the state of the human condition in India. And it hasn’t been pretty.

by Humra Quraishi

This has been a strange week, to put it mildly.

Still reeling in the capital city over the Chhatisgarh Naxal attack on the State’s top Congress brass, we are now waking up to a detailed five-page letter on why tribals in the country are angry at the establishment. Space constraints bar me from producing the entire letter, so let me just write the operative part of the communication.

The letter was written by a Minister in the Central Government, V Kishore Chandra Deo, Minister for Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj. He has written to the Governors of the Schedule V Areas, in which he mentions, “The main challenge that is staring at us today is the explosive situations (sic) that are prevailing in the Schedule V Areas of our country. These areas are inhabited largely by people belonging to the Scheduled Tribe communities, forest dwellers and other marginalised and deprived sections of our society.

“It is, therefore, not a matter of coincidence that we are today faced with a situation which is threatening to strike at the very roots of the basic structure of our polity, and has become a threat to our national security…The root cause of this situation is, however, result of continuous exploitation, oppression, deprivation, neglect and indifference for decades.”

And so on.

Recently, Roli Books launched Incredible Ascents to Everest, which captures “extraordinary stories of ascents – from a blind man’s success to a sherpa’s record 21 climbs. From the oldest, two weeks before his 77th birthday, to the first person to ski down the Everest. From the first solo ascent without any supplemental oxygen to the first double amputee to scale the Mount Everest…the extraordinary stories of ordinary men and women who have risked their physical, emotional and financial well-being to make the momentous and perilous climb to the top of the world’s tallest mountain.”

Before I could get more details of these men and women scaling the highest mountain in the world, came the news of Bollywood’s Jiah Khan and her suicide. News reports claim that she couldn’t claim with the emotional turmoil and the struggles of everyday life. It is sad to hear of the death of a young, reasonably talented girl, who I wish had seen the positives in her life and not given up the courage to go on. Some day, I hope many such Jiahs will learn to look past immediate disappointments and just live.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s a symbol of mingled hope and grief. An exhibition titled Nirbhaya by artist N Swarnalatha was launched here recently, and it bears sketches and paintings of the human form exploited, molested, raped and abused. To quote from the brochure to the exhibition, “‘Nirbhaya’, her current body of work reflects her angst on the plight of the Indian women today. The series is dedicated to Nirbhaya, Vinothini, Vidhya and all the women martyrs who have taught lessons of bravery and self esteem worldwide…”

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy www.warisboring.com, www.dayandnightnews.com)

Three suicides happen every day in Mumbai

Statistics for the country’s financial capital are grim, with most suicides found to occur in the 18-45 years age group.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Actress Jiah Khan (see pic on left) committed suicide at her Juhu home late on Sunday evening. The country woke up to the news of her shocking death, even as the inevitable question cropped up yet again – what drives somebody so young to suicide?

There were three suicides in Mumbai in the last two weeks, all of them publicised in the news. However, what is not known widely is that the malaise runs quite deep – as per data sourced from a comprehensive suicide watch study released for India by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for 2006-2007, police statistics said that three lives were lost per day in Mumbai due to suicide. As against this, Navi Mumbai registered two deaths by suicide per week.

All over the country, as per statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a suicide takes place somewhere in the country every five minutes. “Seven times that number attempt to take their lives and as for those who feel desperate and unable to cope, the number is mind boggling. More suicides occur between (the ages) 18 and 45 – in other words, in the most productive age group of our society,” the report says.

What is it about Mumbai that is claiming more lives by suicide than other factors such as accidents and disease?

The Mumbai conundrum

Dr Harish Shetty, renowned city-based psychiatrist, said in a newspaper interview recently, “In a city like Mumbai, people suffer from loneliness. We are getting at least eight people with suicidal thoughts. You have to be alert in case somebody you know gets angry on little matters, or uses words like ‘I am not worth it’ or ‘My life is finished’ every time he or she is under stress.”

A major point to ponder for our city is that with our fast-paced lives, there is constant competition to get ahead and stay ahead. “In this city, you are constantly racing against the clock to finish projects, earn more, get a better life. Rising inflation, growing peer competition, not as much opportunity to succeed as one would like…all of these begin to prey on the mind and cause a tremendous amount of stress,” says Dr Varsha Thakker, a private practitioner. “While most people are able to channel their frustrations into positive outlets, there are some who may not be able to cope. This class of people may not even acknowledge that there is a problem, that they may need help.” She adds that often, with an existing burden of problems, it sometimes takes just a little trigger to set a person on the path to suicide. “We hear of children killing themselves after a petty dispute with their parents. It may seem like a small issue to anyone else, but it is possible that that child was carrying a huge amount of stress all along, and one harsh word probably pushed him over the edge,” she says.

Suicides are not rampant only among students and young professionals in the city, but among the city’s police force as well. A recent The Times of India report says that there were 168 suicides in the Mumbai police force in the years 2002 to 2012. “Let’s face it – this is a tough city to live in, and the pressures of daily life are immense,” says Dr Shetty. “However, people must seek help if they are depressed often or find themselves increasingly thinking of ending it all.”

Some statistics to ponder:

– Every 3 seconds, a person in India attempts to die.
– Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among the young in the age group of 15-35 years.
– About 1 lakh people die by suicide in India every year.
– 3 people in a day in Mumbai commit suicide.
– A study says 72 per cent writers, 42 per cent artists, 41 per cent politicians, 36 per cent intellectuals, 35 per cent musicians and 33 per cent scientists are prone to stress-related disorders.
– Suicide estimates suggest fatalities worldwide could rise to 1.5 million by 2020.

(Statistics courtesy AASRA, the helpline for the distressed. Pictures courtesy www.india-forums.com, suicidal-lovez.blogspot.com, celiacdisease.about.com, www.sailorspouse.com)