SRINAGAR: A distraught young woman this morning swallowed poison immediately after reaching a government school where she worked, witnesses say.
Staff of the school in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district told Freepress that at around 12 pm today, they found their colleague, a laboratory bearer, lying unconscious and frothing at the mouth.
“We tried to shift her to a hospital, but she succumbed on the way.”
Why the woman took her life is not immediately known, but the Pulwama police say they have begun investigations.
The number of suicides is increasing in the valley, predominantly Muslim, although Islam denounces it. Suicide is a taboo subject and so many suicide deaths are never reported.
But the few figures available offer an insight into the darkest corner of Kashmir’s psyche.
Research from the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital says Kashmir’s suicide rate has increased 40-fold since militancy broke out over two decades ago. Before 1989, Kashmir’s suicide rate was 0.5 per 100,000 people.
Many sociologists and psychiatrists have, however, blamed declining tolerance levels and rise in other mental diseases for the growing suicides among teenagers. But they are quick to add that this is a global phenomenon.
Statistics by the National Crime Records Bureau show that in the age group of 15-29, the highest number of suicides in India were caused by family problems (11768 suicides). Unknown causes were responsible for 7797 suicides while the third most prominent cause was illness.
Dr Abeena Nawaz of the Psychiatric hospital in Srinagar says the growing exposure to crime and violence through mass media is responsible for people taking their lives by suicide.
