Death wish Chandigarh rattled by a spate of suicides

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Title: Death wish
Chandigarh rattled by a spate of suicides
extracted text: GtA-

Society

SDA-RF-CH-1A.12

Death wish
Chandigarh rattled by a spate of suicides
By VIJAYA PUSHKARNA

handigarh’s newfound status
I
as the best city to live in could
WfeZ be a popular myth. Every other
day there is a seminar or symposium
where social workers, psychologists,
bureaucrats, police officers, politicians
and others discuss a disturbing kink
in the city: suicides.
April was the cruellest month with
26 suicides in the city of eight lakh
people; 20 ofthem were in their teens.
Since New Year, 60 people have killed
themselves. “Suicides are not a new
phenomenon. But what we see now is
more and more children taking their
lives," says Dr Savita Malhotra, head
of the department of psychiatry at the
Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Education and Research (PGIMER) in
Chandigarh.
The suicides revealed no economic
20 £>73L—1 Mavis, 2003

or gender skew, and most people
hanged themselves in their bedrooms
by tying a nylon rope to the ceiling fan.
The few suicide notes that were found
blamed no one for the drastic decision.
Perhaps, they were under stress,
with board exam results and entrance
tests for professional courses coming
up. On April 26, Nidhi, 15, hanged
herself in her house in sector 44. A
couple of days later, Deepika, a 22year-old MBA student in the same
area, put the noose around her neck.
Surabhi, a tenth standard student,
ended her life at her sector 38 home.
Satija, II, of Dadua village on the
outskirts of Chandigarh, set herself
ablaze apparently for a simple reason.
She was afraid that her mother,
coming back from work, would pull
her up for not attending to her twoyear-old sibling who had strayed out
of the house.

“Children don’t know how to cope
with stress. They know how to fight
and succeed, to go after education that
will get them power,” says Malhotra.
“But they are not being taught to face
life as it comes.” Relatives are
bewildered by the deaths, like the
parents of Neera, 18, a bright and
cheerful girl who immolated herself
three days after she joined the college
of her choice.
Suicides in Chandigarh have been
making news for a year now. Last.

1

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Agony of the living
reeti Sharma left for the temple
after serving breakfast to her
14-year-old daughter, Surabhi.
When she returned 25 minutes
later, she found her daughter
hanging from the ceiling fan. “It
haunts me day and night,” says
Preeti, who is shifting to another
house. “I cannot live under this roof
anymore.”
What could have gone through
Surabhi’s mind in those few
minutes? None can know for sure.
Preeti believes it is a shakti(power)
that forces children to do such
things. “I cannot figure it out,” she
says, wiping her tears now, and
showing Surabhi’s notebook and
fondly touching a handbag she had
bought a day before she killed
herself.
Preeti does not think the shakti
is television or pressure of school
work. Surabhi never saw anything
other than Punjabi folk and Indipop
on TV, and her mother says she
never put pressure on her daughter
to study. “Of course, she used to
struggle with mathematics and so I
sent her for tuition. I would
occasionally say, 'If you can
remember every step of a dance on
TV, why' not your maths'. And I took
her to the Post Graduate Institute
ofMedical Education and Research,
where she was being treated for

P

epilepsy,” says Preeti.
Surabhi said or did nothing that
gave her mother any idea of
something being wrong. The only
time she talked of death was when
Columbia crashed killing Indianborn astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
“That’s the way everyone should die.
Doing oneself and one’s country
proud," she had said. Surabhi’s uncle,
Om Prakash, remembers that
whenever she read reports of kids
taking their lives she would remark
that they were crazy.
Surabhi loved life. Being an
epileptic, she had written the
telephone numbers of her family
members in the first page of her
tuition notebooks, anticipating
emergencies. The middle-class
neighbourhood, too, was like home
to her.
Is nurture to blame? Preeti is
sure that she could not have given
her more attention. “I wish I knew
what parents could do to prevent
such things. We should give children
good values, education. We did, but
I don’t know why. She was not
unhappy with anything,” says Preeti,
wondering how her daughter got the
courage to kill herself when she was
afraid of even a minor bruise on her
body. “She was scared to even cross
the road when there were speeding
vehicles.”

Preeti Sharma (showing her daughter's notebook) wonders
why 14-year-old Surabhi hanged herself. She believes it is a
shakti that forces children to do such things.
August, Abhinav Nayyar, a journalist,
hanged himself after leaving a note
that he was “absolutely distressed”
with society that “has become
corrupt”. If that was existentialist
angst, the next day, a 33-year-old
mother of two, who was a doctor of
the Government Medical College
Hospital, took her life for reasons
unknown. The same week, two more
in Panchkula decided to end it all:
businessman Mukesh Kumar, 25, and
a homemaker, Sulochana, 44.

Experts, who often attribute
suicides to depression and stress,
blame the media for the spurt in the
number of cases. According to them,
when youngsters see reports of
suicides with photographs displayed
prominently, they start thinking that
it is an easy way out. “Why put the
news on the front page?” asks
Malhotra. “Many youngsters learn the
methods from newspapers.”
Her suggestion: “End every' story'
with a message. Write how it could

have been avoided if parents or
teachers had been vigilant. Ask people
to share their feelings.” According to
her, the younger the person
committing suicide, the greater the
culpability' of the society and the
family.
Parents in their growing anxiety'
are discouraging their teenage
children from reading the news of
suicides. They fear the impact it might
have on their psyche.
Many institutions in the city have
May 18, 2003 ESH533 21

Society
t

'DON'T JUST WASH THE LEAVES CLEAN, BUT NURTURE THE PLANT': Dr Savita Malhotra calls for a systemic change

survey by the department of
psychiatry at the Post Graduate
Institute of Medical Education and
Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh,
among 963 schoolchildren showed
that 6.33 per cent of them had
psychiatric disorders. The study,
from 1992 to 95, was led by Dr
Savita Malhotra and Dr Adarsh
Kohli.
Another study carried out in

1998-2002 assessed children of the
earlier study and used community
based intervention models. The
citywide School Mental Health
Programme is a result of the active
interaction of the team with school
teachers in Chandigarh during the
study.
Following is the outline of the
programme.
■ Open forums with children, parents
and teachers on difficulties of
behaviour, emotions, adjustment and

performance.
■ Question-answer sessions with
committee members who are
trained to identify children with
problems.
■ Regular follow-up involving
families.
Based on the visits to schools
every fortnight for six months, tljA
PGIMER team has prepared a
manual for teachers and parents to
impart mental health and life skills
training to kids.

decided to set up helplines in view of
the rise in suicides. “But that is not the
total solution,” says Malhotra. “Parents
and teachers have to be taught to
prevent circumstances that lead to
suicide. What we need is a systemic
change. Not just wash the leaves clean,
but nurture the plant.”
The PGIMER, which has proposed
a crisis intervention centre, wants its
school mental health programme (see
box) to be taken more seriously. It
envisages the formation of a school

mental health committee with
teachers, parents, school doctor or
counsellor and student representatives
on it. The idea is to impart skills to
identify and manage emotional
problems of students.
Parents now bring their children to
the institute when they start showing
symptoms of deep emotional
upheavals like depression, disturbance
or anxiety. Even a headache can be the
last recourse of the mind when it is
unable to cope. “Parents should be

aware that children, like adults, have
problems, given the fact that life is a
lot more stressful than it was 20 years
ago,” sums up Malhotra.
Baffled by the 'whys' of suicides,
the Government Medical College
Hospital is conducting a study of the
families involved. Prof. B.S. Chavan,
head of the department of psychiatry
here, hopes to find some clue that may
have gone unnoticed and the factors
that prevented the desperate from
seeking help.
■

Helping hand

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May IS, 2003

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