Headlines
Loss of optimism in farmers pushes them to suicide: Experts
New Delhi, April 22
The suicide committed by a
grieved farmer from Rajasthan in the midst of an AAP rally here on
Wednesday not only points to his traumatic mental state after untimely
rains destroyed his crops but also highlights his "loss of optimism" and
"hopelessness", say experts.
Minutes before Delhi's Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal was to address thousands of farmers at a rally
against the government's controversial land ordinance, which is being
projected by opposition parties as anti-farmer, the death of Gajendra
Singh came as testimony to the plight of many farmers.
"The
farmers are at the downward spiral of well-being and in today's age of
inequality they don't see things getting better for them," Sanjeev Jain,
clinical psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health and
Neurosciences (NIMHANS), told IANS.
"This loss of optimism is a
big factor that precipitates suicidal ideas. They are convinced that
nothing will change and such depressing thoughts lead them to take such
extreme steps," he added.
According to the information provided
by the ministry of agriculture in November 2014, incidents of suicide by
farmers due to agrarian distress during the year 2014 have been mainly
reported by the state governments of Maharashtra (204 up to April 2014),
Telangana (69 up to October 2014), Karnataka (19 in 2014-15 so far),
Gujarat (3 up to October 2014), Kerala (3 up to October 2014) and Andhra
Pradesh (3 up to June 2014).
The experts also said that there
are multiple reasons that push an individual to end his/her life and
these could vary from sheer depression to psycho-social reasons.
There is a thin line between hope and hopelessness that amplifies their suicidal tendencies.
"When
one is going through rough patch, if a person is hopeful he believes
everything will be alright and there is more to life than this
depressing phase. But when a person feels there is no hope and reaches a
point where he is gloomy and even ashamed of himself, he kills
himself," Pulkit Sharma, clinical psychologist at Imago Centre for Self,
told IANS.
Sharma added that in suicide cases "duration of sadness is not important but intensity is".