Srinagar, August 04, 2022 (PPI-OT):What the experts have described a disturbing trend, the suicide rate, last year, has risen sharply in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, especially the Kashmir valley. Close to 600 people attempted to end their lives in the Kashmir valley while in Jammu 20 such cases were reported during that period. Mental health experts in Kashmir describe the attempt to suicide as “intention to end one’s life” but “he/she may or may not die” because of the act.

As per a data released by the IIOJK police, the valley witnessed 586 attempted suicide cases in 2021. At the same time, Jammu witnessed only 20 cases of suicide attempts. The data said that most of the people couldn’t survive in these cases. The date further said that since 2010 to 2020, the valley witnessed 3024 cases of suicide.

According to a report published last year by India’s National Human Rights Commission, 20,000 people have attempted suicide during the 14 years of socio-political turmoil in the Valley. About 3,000 of them have died and most of them were in the 16 to 25 age group, the report added.

Experts say that brutal military repression particularly in last over three decades, a total military siege for months in IIOJK since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 19, 2019 and two long periods of lockdown during the first and second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic – all of this together has created a serious mental health crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, and led to a sudden spurt in suicides in the territory in recent times.

While describing the suicide as the symptom of underlying mental health problem, Dr Yasir Rather, a noted psychiatrist and professor at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) in Srinagar said 90 percent of the suicide cases have underlying major depression disorder, which leads them to suicide.

Suicide has many convocations – political, psychology, economic and social, maintains, Dr. Mir Suhail, a research scholar at Kashmir University’s Sociology department. He added, suicide is not just an act but it is protest against injustice and suppression.

“In a conflict zone like Kashmir, suicides are common because of multiple reasons,” says Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan, associate professor (Medicine) at SMHS hospital Srinagar. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common reason for suicides in a conflict zone, then come factors like financial stress, domestic abuse etc.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org