India is the country where one housewife commits suicide every 25 minutes International | News

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 61 housewives commit suicide every day in India. Last year alone it was 22,372.

The group represents 14.6% of the total 153,052 suicides in Asia by 2020 and more than 50% of women who have committed suicide.

Last year was no exception. Since 1997, when the government began collecting suicides and job type data, more than 20,000 housewives have committed suicide each year. In 2009 there were 25,092.

The press often refers to these deaths as “family problems” or “marital affairs”. But what really drives thousands of women to commit suicide?

Psychiatrists point to widespread domestic violence in Indian society as the main cause – in a recent government survey, 30% of respondents said they were sometimes subjected to spousal violence – and the burden of domestic work. Repression for many.

“Women are really resilient, but there is a limit to tolerance,” said Dr Usha Verma Srivastava, a medical psychologist in the northern city of Varanasi.

“Most women get married when they reach the age of 18 for marriage. She later becomes his wife and daughter-in-law, and they spend the rest of the day doing housework, cooking, cleaning and other household chores. All kinds of restrictions are imposed on them, they have less personal freedom and no money to own. His education and dreams are gone regardless, and his ambitions are slowly being destroyed; Then frustration and frustration develop and existence becomes torture. ”

Dr. Srivastava explains that there are other causes in older women. “As babies grow up and leave home, many people experience empty nest syndrome and experience menopausal symptoms, which can lead to depression and crying.”

But, according to the doctor, Suicides are easily preventable: “If you stop someone for a second, they will most likely give up.”

Psychiatrist Chaumitra Pathare explains that many suicides in India are the result of provocation: “The man comes and beats his wife and she commits suicide.”

Bhattarai cites study data that one-third of Indian women who commit suicide have a history of being victims of domestic violence. But domestic abuse does not even appear in the National Crime Records Bureau.

Saitali Sinha, a psychologist at Visa, a Bangalore-based mental health clinic, says, “Many women who are caught up in abusive situations are only wise because of the informal support they receive.”

Sinha, who worked for three years at the Government Psychiatric Hospital in Bombay, counseled survivors of suicide attempts and found that women formed small support groups to travel together on trains or to go out with neighbors to buy vegetables.

“They have no other way to express themselves, and sometimes their sanity depends only on the person with whom they can have that conversation,” he says. He adds that infection and isolation made the situation worse.

“Housewives had a safe place when men went to work, but it disappeared during epidemics. In cases of domestic violence, it meant that they were often caught by their attackers. And tragedy develops over time, and suicide becomes the last resort.

India has the highest suicide rate in the world. 25% of Indian men and 36% of women worldwide commit suicide in the 15-39 age group.

But Patare, who studies mental health problems and suicide prevention, says official Indian figures do not reflect the true extent of the problem.

“According to a study of nearly 14 million people in 2.4 million households between 1998 and 2014 or a study published in The Lancet, suicide statistics in India are between 30 and one. It is less than 100% true.”

The expert assures that suicide is not a topic that is openly discussed. “Shame and stigma are attached to it and many families are trying to cover it up. There is no compulsion to do autopsy in rural India and the rich are relying on the local police to show that suicide is an accidental death.

At a time when India is developing a national suicide prevention strategy, Dr. Bhattarai believes that improving data quality should be a priority.

“The number of suicide attempts in India is ridiculously low. Elsewhere in the world, they are usually 4 to 20 less than the actual number of suicides. So if there are 150,000 suicides per year in India, the number of attempts should be between 600,000 and six million.

Dr. Bhattare points out that the population of potential suicides should be given priority, but the lack of reliable data makes it difficult to prevent suicide worldwide.

“The United Nations aims to reduce suicides by one-third globally by 2030, but in recent years India has increased by 10% over the previous year. Reducing them is still a dream.