World Suicide Prevention Day observed in Jowai
JOWAI: Suicide is the leading cause of death among India’s youth says a Lancet study published in 2011. The youth population in India is nearly 364.66 million (37 crore approximately) and according to the 2013 statistics, 62,960 young people adopted suicide as a way out of their mental and physical pain.
Addressing the audience on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day at the Chutwakhu hall in Jowai, Dr Sandi Syiem, Director, SANKER said, “Being suicidal is not a character defect; it only means that the person who adopts suicide as a way out feels that the pain is unbearable. The primary aim of suicide is not to end life but to end the pain, hopelessness and helplessness of life. Depression narrows a person’s problem solving skills and leads to corrosive thinking. Hence it reduces optimism.”
Dr Syiem stressed on the need for survivors of suicide loss to find healing by being able to talk about their loss. He said the family members of suicide survivors struggle for years to make sense of their loved one’s death and even longer to make peace if at all with the unanswerable questions that plague them. Many suffer from post traumatic stress disorders, bewilderment, a need to numb the anguish and pain and constant flashbacks.
“You are not responsible for your loved one’s suicide,” Dr Syiem emphasized, perhaps allowing many in the audience who may have lost a family member to suicide to heave a sigh of relief. Dr Syiem also said that survivors of suicide loss need to grieve in their own way and need to come out of their grief in their own time.
“Give yourself permission to laugh, to cry and to seek professional help if your need it. Remember you are moving through the most difficult of losses and you can take control of the path of healing,” Dr Syiem exhorted.
Ms Khianmon Kyndiah Principal Jowai Government Girls High School said that these days it is a challenge to deal with young people and parents and teachers need to have empathy because this is a troubled generation. Stressing on the three words that symbolize suicide prevention- connect, communicate and care – Kyndiah said it is important for family members and teachers to connect and care with those they recognize are carrying signs of depression and help them communicate their anxieties.
Kyndiah rued that while private schools have one or more counselors in their institutions, Government schools do not have a single one although the need is a very urgent one.
DSP West Jaintia Hills P Syiem said although suicide is a crime under the IPC police cannot possibly prosecute one who is dead. They can however, penalise those responsible for abetting suicide. Police, Syiem said have to make sure that a homicide case is not dressed to look like a suicide case.
He pointed out to a number of suicide cases happening in the district and said it is often difficult to understand what pushes people towards suicide.
Clinical Psychologist SANKER Nursing Home Naphisabet Kharsati in her presentation stated that the best way to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviour is early recognition and treatment of depression and other mental illness.
“Every suicide is made with a degree of ambivalence about whether or not to carry out the act. Suicide is a very personal decision and no one can take responsibility for another’s suicide,” she said.
The programme was chaired by Ms Aida Rymbai. Others who spoke included Aitihun Wankhar, clinical psychologist and Ms Patricia Mukhim, Editor, The Shillong Times who shared her story in a chapter of the book edited by Jerry Pinto called, “A Book of Life”.
Earlier over a hundred cyclists from all over Jowai and some from Shillong took to the streets to create awareness about suicide prevention. There were bikers as well and ladies driving their scooties around Jowai town in the early morning hours even as people thronged the roads to cheer on the cyclists.