Rising suicide tendencies in Sindh: Over 1,300 ended their lives in five years

KARACHI: Suicide statistics in Sindh have set alarm bells ringing in the Sindh province, as over 1,300 people committed suicide there in the last five years.

According to a Geo News report, suicide cases have increased alarmingly in the province but the provincial authorities seemed least bothered about it. According to statistics, Umerkot, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas districts of Sindh saw most number of suicide incidents in the last five years. As many as 646 incidents were reported only in these three districts, while the highest number of victims were youth and women. In the year 2019, 160 people lost their lives in these three districts.

According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, around one million people commit suicide around the world annually, meaning that every 40 seconds, one person loses his life.

As far as Sindh is concerned, Mirpurkhas is the division where the highest number of suicide incidents occurred in the last five years, and 646 people killed themselves with their own hands. Of them, 356 were women and 290 were men.

The Hyderabad division is the second one with the highest figure in the suicide statistics graph, with a total of 299 suicide incidents, of which 183 were males and 116 were females.

In Shaheed Benazirabad division, 181 people committed suicide, of which 106 were men and 75 were women.

In the past five years, 107 people committed suicide in Karachi, including 82 men and 25 women.

In Larkana division, 48 people committed suicide, 36 were male and 12 women, while Sukkur division had the lowest suicide rate where four men and two women committed suicide. Seven hundred and two of those committing suicide fell in the age bracket of 21 to 40 years.

The most alarming increase in the trend of suicide was seen in 2018. According to a survey, 81 per cent of those committing suicide belonged to lower income group, 18pc to the middle class and only one per cent to the wealthy group of people.

According to the survey, the biggest causes of suicide include poverty, unemployment, ignorance, economic conditions, lack of basic facilities of life, debt and interest, forced marriages, violence, and drug abuse.

The Geo News conducted a survey of the most affected area Mithi. There were no lively activities in Dharmani Colony.

Majnumal Meghwar, 35, of this colony committed self-immolation about six months ago. Majnu had to pay loans, but his family disagreed with him.

When Sonaroparo’s retired schoolteacher Lajpat Rao tried to commit suicide, his wife rescued him. Pooja, 22, of Mithi’s Meghwar Colony committed suicide in April. Her father said they had married Pooja and she was all right till last January.

Experts say emergency steps are needed to check this trend. In the first place, the government should take steps to end poverty. The government will have to play an effective role in treatment of depressed people. The availability of basic health facilities and medicines must be ensured. A media campaign must be launched to introduce people with the colours of life.

Civil society and NGOs will have to play their part in this context. In view of the ongoing situation in society, a call centre must be established for psycho-therapy of highly depressed people. Religious leaders will also have to help the depressed people. Hospitals and clinics will have to be established for 24-hour services. To end the suicide trend, the government will have to include a chapter in the education syllabus. And there must be a check on anti-social elements.

According to anothe report by another report, Sometimes every day's problems and pyschological issues force people to the edge. In utter despair they take the extreme step of committing suicide. The same happened to 28 year-old Haryan Kohli of Umerkot. Daily domestic altercations and unhelpful circumstances drove Kohli to commit suicide, leaving five children with no one to look after.

Talking to the Geo News, Kohli's aunt, Nishal Das said she lived in abject poverty. There was nothing worthwhile in the house. She could not even afford new clothes on Eid, and in her case she could not even had new ones on her wedding day. Rising up every day to the same set of circumstances with nothing to look up to she took the ultimate step, leaving the children uncared and unwanted, Nishal said. "They do not know what is happening to them."

There is no one to look after the five small children now, who are tormented by the reckless relatives. If being without a mother is not enough, now they are taunted by those relatives, she said and remarked the society is ruthless and very cruel.

The plight was not limited to Haryan Kohli alone. The situation is shocking and full of agony. In 2019, 160 people committed suicide in the Umerkot division alone, which included 67 women and 73 men. What is appalling is all of them were young ranging in age from 21 to 40 years. As many as 13 women committed suicide in Mirpurkhas, 27 in Umerkot and 47 in Tharparkar. Going by the same rate, 14 men took the extreme step in Mirpukhas, 29 in Umerkot and 30 in Tharparkar. Expressing concern the police says the family, social organisations and religious personalities must dissuade and help people from taking the plunge.

Javed was a rickshaw driver in Mithi. Life was bearable to begin with, but then things took turn for the worst. He committed the deadly mistake of taking loan to get the rickshaw repaired, throwing his life in tail spin. The poverty coupled with misery only increased with continuing unemployment tormented Javed and the family. He could not repay the loan as the pressure mounted and in despair he found a way to get out of the difficult situation: hanged himself to death. But he survived only to be rendered mentally unstable. His wife left him, other friends and relatives abandoned him too. His parents have been traumatised. Weak and frail and unable to speak coherently, Javed advises against despair, he told Geo News "suicide is an unforgiveable sin. Do not even think of it."

His attempted suicide and now his disability has devastated his parents and siblings. The lives of Javed's parents have been scorched as they watch their son in agony, passing sleepless nights. Javed's brother says he is under treatment for the last one year. "The doctors are hopeful he can fully recover in two years." "Please do not even think of such a step, it is forbidden and destroys lives," he beseeched.

These harrowing tales do not end in Mirpurkhas and Umerkot. Such stories are replete in Tharparkar as well, where in 2019, 77 people committed suicide. What is the all the more shocking is the fact that of these 27 were just boys: 15-20 years of age. "They were too young to die." SP Tharparkar Abdullah Ahmad Yar confirmed the figure. Ahmad Yar says people do not report these deaths due to which no one knows about the real incidence.

Dr Dilip, a psychologist, said socially isolated people find no other way to cope with the problems. It is important that the family stays together and around the vulnerable. There is unimaginable poverty in Tharparkar. People are are deeply disturbed and upset with long periods of unemployment and failure to return debt and need escape of the compounding worries. Such people need professional medical help, Dr Dilip said and added they must be taken to psychiatrists. Suicide destroys families who can never recover from the loss, grief and guilt. Awareness campaigns have important role to play as well, he said.

Sindh CM's advisor Murtaza Wahab said it is a global issue and not a political matter. It is a sociological problem not limited to Sindh alone but happen across every nook and corner of the country.

It needs to be addressed psychologically. He said this has several reasons including domestic and personal issues but governance is certainly not one of them. Murtaza said the countrywide economic problems are generating mass unemployment.

The advisor said the Mental Health Authority has been directed to counsel and help the vulnerable. He said if a person needs government's help the Sindh Government can definitely play a role.