*November 3, 2010* *SINGUR*, India — Every morning for decades, Haradhan Bag walked into his fields, where he cultivated rice, vegetables and a satisfying life for his family. But then, the state government acquired his land for a car factory, and the only life he'd ever known vanished.
It “crushed him,” his son, Arun Bag, said through an interpreter. And in March 2007, the 76-year-old farmer took his life by ingesting the pesticides he once used on his crops. Stories of lives lost to suicide are growing increasingly common in India as the developing nation takes on many of the problems of the developed world. But a counseling psychology professor at the University of Louisville hopes to help stem the tide by launching a mental health movement in the nation of more than a billion people. U of L's Daya Singh Sandhu spent five months this year conducting cross-cultural research on suicide as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, India. He found more than 125,000 Indians take their lives each year. The highest percentage live in Bag's home state of West Bengal, where newspapers carry daily stories about farmers, college students and housewives hanging themselves, jumping in front of trains or taking poison. And in all, suicide, generally more prevalent in rich nations than poor ones, rose nearly 60 percent in the past 35 years in India to 10.8 deaths per 100,000 people — nearly matching the U.S. rate of around 11 per 100,000. “India is the suicide capital of the world right now,” Sandhu said. “Depression seems to be everywhere.” Struck by the suffering, Sandhu, 67, worked with the Fulbright Commission, Guru Nanak Dev and the United States-Indian Educational Foundation to found the Association of Mental Health Counselors in May. As its founding executive director, he is developing programs to train more mental health professionals, raise awareness of suicide and open counseling centers in various parts of India. As part of his research, Sandhu discovered an acute shortage of trained mental health professionals, one psychiatrist for every 400,000 people, compared with about 56 per 400,000 in the United States. Indians troubled by poverty, loss or intense academic pressure often seek help from astrologers or religious leaders — but then go on to take their lives. Summarizing his work, Sandhu wrote that proactive approaches are sorely needed as his native land hurtles toward a more Westernized future: “If suicide is an ultimate indicator of psychological distress and psychopathology, it sends a stunning warning that something is seriously wrong with the psychological health of India.” Sandhu said he hopes the lessons learned in India will aid in suicide prevention across the world, including in Louisville. As an Indian-American working in mental health, he said he's driven to do all he can. “It brought tears to my eyes when I went over there,” he said. “It hurts to see other human beings in such pain.” *Leaving shame behind* Suicide has long been shrouded in secrecy and stigma in India but is moving further into the open as it becomes more common. Three Bollywood movies tackled the topic recently, including India's Oscar entry this year, “Peepli Live,” a satirical look at a farmer's suicide and the ensuing media circus. Mental health experts say poor farmers are especially vulnerable to suicide as worldwide financial pressures trickle down to them. Some can't feed their families or repay loans when their crops yield less than expected, while others, such as Bag, lose already-meager livelihoods to industrialization. Suicide also is rising among college students, who face rapid social and economic changes. For first-generation college students especially, “the very meaning of education … is just getting good marks,” said Jayanti Basu, a professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at the University of Calcutta. Experts said many young people get the message early on that they are expected to become high-level professionals. “Parents want them to be very good in school and be on top of the world,” said Jayashree Shome, deputy director of the Lifeline Foundation in West Bengal's capital of Kolkata, which offers a hot line and face-to-face support for people who are distressed or suicidal. Such pressures are often compounded by relationship or family problems, mental illness or substance abuse. India's National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences estimates that nearly 100 million Indians have neuropsychiatric or substance-abuse problems. Ajit K. Shaha, executive director of The Indo-American Society in Kolkata, said he plunged into depression in the 1990s after his wife left him for another man and took their children with her. “I was totally shattered,” said Shaha, 62. “I couldn't bear it.” He saw a psychoanalyst, who he said didn't delve deeply into his problems. He stopped going. He began drinking heavily and isolating himself in his home. “My house was becoming a burial ground — and it had been full of life,” he said. “I thought, ‘I've got to finish myself.' ” Shaha said he tried the most common methods of suicide in India: poisoning and hanging. Once, he washed down seven sleeping pills with a pint of whiskey and wound up in the hospital. Another time, he prepared to hang himself, but as he was about to kick his chair away, his daughter called to say she missed him. “I thought, ‘Who will look after her?' ” he recalled. “And I said to myself, ‘Why are you wasting your life for one woman?' ” Shaha said he then began getting out of his house and reaching out to others. He found new purpose and companionship by joining the fraternal organization of Freemasons. With the help of friends, he said, he came to realize “the world is so beautiful. Why would I want to take myself out of it?” Today, Shaha has four young grandchildren, and said “I'm thankful just to watch them smile.” *Accepting a challenge* Such stories are familiar to Sandhu, who concluded that at least a million Indians a year contemplate ending their lives. One issue, he said, is that India is seeing the dissolution of an ancient support system: several generations living under one roof. “Historically in the past, psychological problems were resolved within the family,” Sandhu wrote. “Now the extended family system is eroding fast, resulting in very little guidance and psychological help from elders of the family.” And given the shortage of mental health workers, he said, there's little to fill the void. Sandhu acknowledged that India benefited from a 1987 mental health law that brought new psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes. But he said that law dealt with severe diseases and left out people with problems such as anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and substance abuse. For those people, professional care and even volunteer help is lacking. The Lifeline Foundation, for example, is the only organization of its kind in West Bengal, a state with a population of 80 million. “It is obviously not enough,” deputy director Shome said. Sandhu is hoping to offer more help. His organization is working to create diploma and degree programs and a national curriculum in mental health counseling, establish a network connecting counselors and start chapters of the association in all Indian states. Plans also call for training rural residents as mental health associates to give farmers and villagers more access to care. Meanwhile, the association's first counseling center has been established in Punjab, and Guru Nanak Dev University is preparing to open a center in January. For his part, Sandhu said he plans to visit India regularly and expects to open at least five more centers across the country next year. They are being funded with help from the Indian government, nongovernmental organizations and philanthropists, and Sandhu also plans to raise money in the United States. “There's so much that needs to be done,” he said. “We have to start somewhere.” Some whose lives have been touched by suicide, such as Sohini Das of Kolkata, are hopeful. “I am very optimistic,” said Das, whose friend and dance mentor killed herself in 1999. “This is a time of great change in India and the right time to bring the concept of mental health out of the closet.” *Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190.* http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101031/NEWS01/311020001/University-of-Louisville-professor-works-to-curb-India-s-growing-suicide-rate -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. 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