September 10 is observed as the World Suicide Prevention Day, in order to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides, with various activities around the world.
In Kashmir, today a group of students organised a rally and carried placards urging people to value life, something that’s really the need of the hour. Kainaat Mushtaq tells you why
SRINAGAR: A distraught Nahida (name changed) drank pesticide and ended her life last week, a day after she was divorced by her husband in Kulgam area of South Kashmir.
Earlier this year in the neighbouring area of Anantnag district, Mohammad Yusuf attempted suicide after his 21-year-old son was killed in crossfire between soldiers and militants.
They are two of hundreds who try to commit suicide in Kashmir each year, and often succeed.
Suicide rate in this Muslim-majority state has increased drastically – 40-fold (from 0.5 per 100,000 people two decades ago), says a research by the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital in Srinagar.
More so, statistics provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveal that in 2012 around 414 people committed suicide – a 44.3 per cent increase than the previous year here.
More than half of those who killed themselves were women.
Islam denounces suicides. But the unrelenting violence in the scenic Himalayan region famous for its pristine hillsides, forested valleys, and soaring snow-covered peaks has strained its traditionally easy-going society.
The tolerance level among people has fallen steeply and Dr Abeena Nawaz, a prominent psychiatrist, says it has increased the possibility of people resorting to suicide to ease worries.
She says depressed people are “more likely to succumb to general factors of suicide like unemployment, psychiatric disorders and family feuds.”
Read More: ‘Declining Faith’ a Reason for Rising Suicides in Kashmir
“Love affairs too,” says Dr Sajad, a registrar at the SMHS hospital in Srinagar, which receives suicide cases on almost a daily basis.
For him “Lack of religious education is a major contributor.”
Also Read: Stress, Love and Low Tolerance Push Many to Suicide in Restive Kashmir
