Degraded quality of education, spiraling unemployment, and increasing health-related concerns are worsening woes in Kashmir valley and have resulted in an increased number of suicides in the region.
As of 2020, as per the National Human Rights Commission, suicide has claimed the maximum number of lives in Kashmir after militancy, reported Indian Asian News Service. (IANS)
The rate of suicide is said to have increased by 26 times, from 0.5 per 100,000 before insurgency broke out, to 13 per 100,000.
A study by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, aka Doctors Without Borders) reveals an alarming 400 per cent increase in the suicide rate.
In 2021, 586 people attempted suicide in Kashmir. The figure stood at 20 in Jammu.
As per the report, central Kashmir’s Budgam district and north Kashmir’s Baramulla reported 73 cases of suicide each.
This is followed by south Kashmir’s Anantnag which reported 67 cases. Srinagar reported 51 cases of attempt of suicide.
In 2021, 41 cases of abetment to suicide were registered in Kashmir against 35 in 2020.
In 2020, the year of the pandemic, over 450 cases of suicide were reported—the highest in a decade.
In 2017, there were 287 suicides in Jammu Kashmir. The figure increased to 330 in 2018.
2019 saw a marginal drop in numbers with 284 reported cases. The (erstwhile) state reported a suicide rate of 10.3 per 100,000 people that year. The national average is 10.2.
From 2010 to 2020, the valley witnessed 3,024 cases of suicide.
Dr Mudassir Hassan Pandith, a Kashmir-based Clinical Psychologist, in conversation with IANS, said that “Suicides always happened. But now with easy access to social media, incidents are highlighted way much more.”
He points out a pertinent aspect that contributes to the escalating number of suicide in the valley.
“A youth could die from (drug) overdoes and it may appear as suicide as the addiction might be undiagnosed,” he said.
Surface-level reasons such as a negative environment at home, strained interpersonal relationships (and even break-ups), financial set-back, failure in examination for youth, etc may be an impetus for committing suicide, but “Suicidal tendency is a personality-based tendency,” he explained, adding that “it is impulsive behaviour.”
However, “before committing suicide, a person leaves behind several hints,” he said, meaning that an impending suicide is but foreseeable.
However, “Society and people are not as connected as they used to be,” he said, adding that misinformation and disinformation significantly impact common perceptions as people are isolated and confined to their own immediate concerns.
This also indicates the shift from common social interactions to relying on social media updates for one’s awareness of their surroundings.
In 2021, the overall male-to-female ratio of suicide victims in Kashmir stood at 73:27. In 2020, the figure was 71:29.