*Ullekh N P * *18 Aug 2011*
*Kerala* : As an expression, "killing oneself" seems to have acquired a sense of comic relief in Kerala, home to highest rates of suicides in the country. Unlike most parts of India, barring urban centres, where people often commit suicide out of frustration at being poor and indebted, in this southern state they often cite angst and disenchantment with the world as reasons for taking what, in media parlance, is "the extreme step". Results of a recent study by the Indian Psychological Society confirm the fears: it is mostly depression (linked more to alcoholism and less to a person's financial status) that drives Kerala's youths to suicide. For a state that is not far from being 100% literate, 35% of its population suffers from depression. Here are some numbers that tell the larger story: a majority of Kerala's schizophrenics are in the age group of 18-28. Those who suffer from mere depression are in the age group of 20-30. Considering the gravity of the situation — that young people are highly vulnerable to suicides and alcoholism compared with others — the Society is expected to launch an awareness campaign to wean youths away from drink. This trend of drastic rise in suicides was first noticed in Kerala in the 1980s following the proliferation of nuclear families — the state today has the highest percentage of nuclear families in the country. The increasing rate of growth of nuclear families was a sudden outcome of massive land reforms and the Gulf boom. Psychiatrists say the sociological impact of the end of the traditional joint family system, which ensured certain support systems for all individuals, has been grave. In fact, a study by the Kerala State Mental Health Authority had earlier said that 39 of every 100 family suicides reported in India take place in the state. While suicides are almost non-existent among a few religious groups, male suicides in the state account for 72% of the total number of suicides. Worse, nearly 78% of the suicide victims are married as opposed to the trend in the West where suicide rates are higher among unmarried and divorced people. Elsewhere in the country, in regions like Vidarbha, farmers kill themselves in hordes, rendering death by suicide as commonplace as annual rains. But even there, such deaths still acquire darker hues. Of course, suicides out of angst or the socalled existential dilemma haven't yet become rose-tinted affairs among the Malayalam-speaking population but, as in an act of coping, humour seems to float in abundance in conversations about suicides. It isn't too rational an approach, but it isn't highly irrational either. People, including politicians, talk in private and public about "funnyness" behind suicides, prominent among them being the one from the memoirs of a politician who has often talked about finding a classmate hanging dead from a tree on a college campus in the 1970s. Initially, he found the morning campus scene quite unpleasant and nauseating, but soon, the sense of humour took over, because the dead friend had hung a guitar around his neck —without doubt, it was a deadly cocktail of unrequited love and philosophical anxiety! Suicide stemming from angst —which is in no way related to any financial burden — is seen as a joke. Well, that doesn't come as big surprise, but here is one place you have them in plenty. Recently, Tintumon, the God's Own Country's Little Johnny, exploited this sentiment to create some joy for the Malayalees. He announced that he had committed suicide and left a note to his girlfriend and specified the erosion of his "market share" to God's Own Country's most well-known cricketer who bowls (only) himself over with his antics as the reason. His (Tintumon's) fans reacted with glee. Interestingly, even the highly rational communists, led by none other than V S Achuthanandan, who ruled the state till a few months ago, failed to do enough for the mentally ill. The Comptroller and Auditor General recently made a sharp attack on the former Left Democratic Front government for not using Rs 4.07 crore of the Rs 9.98 crore in central funds for five years up to 2010 to look into mental health issues. Besides, the CPM-led government didn't even bother to conduct a survey on the extent of mental illness in the state as recommended by the National Mental Health Authority many years ago. Well, plus or minus the Malayalees' predisposition for schadenfreude — the great word for deriving pleasure from others' misfortune — one often tends to smile reading daily news briefs on suicides where the explanation is mostly angst, mental disorder's euphemistic cousin. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-08-18/news/29900867_1_family-suicides-suicide-rates-suicide-victims/1 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. 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