Taking away one’s life is no rarer, it’s more common, especially after the pandemic. A suicide brings out Traumatic scenes for those loved ones seeing the living dead. Young/old lives are snuffed out early in a moment of rashness. Globally, close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year; that’s one person every 40 seconds. For each suicide, there are more than 20 suicide attempts.
It is true that our lives have altered since the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the 2020 National Crime Records Bureau data, while the number of traffic accidents and accompanying deaths decreased significantly, suicides increased significantly. Professional/salaried people had a 16.50 percent rise in suicides–from 12,725 in 2019 to 14,825 in 2020–and their percentage increased marginally from 9.1 percent to 9.7 percent.
While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis. Risk factors include the experience of loss, loneliness, discrimination, a relationship break-up, financial problems, chronic pain and illness, violence, abuse, and conflict or other humanitarian emergencies. The strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt.
Students and small business owners had the greatest increase in suicides, correlating with anecdotal descriptions of the pandemic’s disproportionate burden on them.
From January to December 2020, there was a significant increase in the number of suicide fatalities. In absolute terms, there were 153,052 suicide fatalities, the most since 1967.
The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 decriminalizes suicide, assuring adequate medical relief to those attempting it. However, Suicide is an emerging and serious public health issue in India. The suicide mortality rate per 100,000 population in 2016 was 16.5, while the global average was 10.5 per 100,000. However, it is preventable with timely, evidence-based, and often low-cost interventions, starting with an opportunity to share the pain, the sorrow, and the fear. But who is listening???
The most vulnerable are the 15–29-year old’s, the elderly, and persons with special needs. The ones that need special counseling and options to see life through a new prism of hope and comfort.
The church must fulfill its role in society in bringing the ‘Life’ of the Good news into this dark world of hopelessness. Who will tell the Jesus story to the one tying up a noose around his neck, who will speak of the Sacrifice at Calvary to those trying to jump off a bridge? This Gate of Hell is punishing this generation’s of materialistic excesses, the Church must stand in the gap and fight!
Your chance to stand up and fight! Click here if you want to know how to be part of this movement.
Data Credits: https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/suicide