It is said to be the biggest public health crisis affecting India and the numbers bear it out — two out of every five women who commit suicide globally are from India. This is of course a chilling, even numbing, truth but the greater truth is that it is an absolutely, totally and undeniably needless calamity that can be averted and this is where the shock and frustration of this loss comes to a bruising halt. Every woman who gave up on hope and help and ended her life could have been saved because the desire to commit suicide is not a terminal illness; it is a phase and it can be ended and the individual can be safely extricated from that danger zone. But is this easier said than done? The ground reality in India seems to suggest so.
Suicide may be an individual’s act of unmitigated despair, but its causes are firmly rooted in flawed social conditions and ineffective systems at the community, state and national levels. Just as an individual comprises the unit measurement of a society and contributes to it, and by extension to the government, the two latter entities bear complete and irrevocable responsibility towards the welfare of the individual. The welter of factors that clash and thwart women’s progress in India are legion and in the vanguard are frayed socio-cultural idioms that have long lost their relevance such as patriarchy, early marriage, chauvinistic mores, regressive social traditions, gender bias that demands supplication of the female. Concurrent damage is done by the insufficiently implemented mental health awareness policies, from the grass roots up, and lack of mechanisms to successfully intervene and rehabilitate women in distress.
India needs to acknowledge the consequences of these weaknesses in its national fabric and take every measure to mend it with critical urgency. There is no time to be lost on improving the infrastructure for women’s wellness and counselling and removing the stigma surrounding mental problems. It is also imperative that the outdated traditions that constrict a woman’s sense of self and her right to her choices be done away with through education, awareness and progressive governance.
Currently, there is a tug of war between two narratives of Indian women — the successful millions who are adding new chapters to the country’s story of progress and the other millions who are still struggling to emerge from the suffocating shadows of convention and discrimination. This bifurcation is what needs to be dealt with.
There is no need for women to seek suicide as the only way out of their predicament. And India must do whatever is necessary to ensure this trend abates and that its women feel safe, protected and have the freedom to speak their mind.
