What’s caused 31×365 kids to choose suicide over life in 2020?

An average of thirty-one children died by suicide a day in India in the year 2020, consistent with government data, with experts underlining that the Coronovirus-19 widespread may have accentuated the psychological trauma faced by children to an excellent extent.

New Delhi: According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, 11,396 children died by suicide within the year 2020, an eighteen per cent rise from 9,613 such deaths within the year 2019 and a twenty-one per cent rise from 9,413 within the year 2018.

‘Family Problems’ (4,006), ‘Love Affairs’ (1,337), and ‘Illness’ (1,327) were the most causes of suicide among children (below eighteen years of age). Ideological causes or hero-worshipping, unemployment, bankruptcy, impotency or infertility, and drug abuse were other reasons behind suicide by some children.

Prabhat Kumar, Deputy Director – Child Protection, Save the youngsters, said Coronovirus-19 and therefore the resultant school closures and social isolation including anxiety among elders have further aggravated the difficulty of psychological state and brought it to the forefront.

“While we as a society are cognisant of tangibles like education and physical health for building national human capital, emotional wellbeing or psycho-social support often takes a back seat. The successively increasing number of suicides among children reflects a systemic failure. It is a collective responsibility of oldsters, neighbourhoods, families and government at large to supply a conducive ecosystem where children can anticipate realizing their potential and fulfilling their dreams for a bright future. Committing suicide, on the contrary, is an antithesis,” Kumar told PTI.

“Stigma attached to psychological state and an abysmally low number of per capita psychological state professionals demand urgent attention. Coronavirus-19, and therefore the resultant school closures and social isolation including anxiety among elders have further aggravated the difficulty and brought it to the forefront. Save the youngsters involves a collective action to nurture an encouraging and supportive ecosystem for youngsters and youth,” he added.

Commenting on the subject, Priti Mahara, Director, Policy Research and Advocacy at CRY-Child Rights and You, said from the very beginning of the pandemic, it had been one among the main concerns that it would impact children’s psychological state and psycho-social well-being, and therefore the recent NCRB data underscores the fear that the pandemic may have accentuated the psychological trauma faced by the youngsters to an excellent extent.

“As the NCRB data reveals, a complete of 11,396 children (5,392 boys and 6,004 girls) have died by suicide within the year 2020, which accounts for thirty-one deaths per day or approximately one child committing suicide per hour,” she told PTI.

“Children have skilled tremendous emotional stress and trauma thanks to home confinement and lack of interaction with friends, teachers, or the other person within the position of trust thanks to the prolonged closure of faculties and limited social interactions,” she said.

Many of them are through a hostile environment reception, many others have seen the demise of their loved ones and have faced the impact of fear of contagion and deepening financial crisis at the family level, she said.

Many children have also experienced huge uncertainty associated with the completion of curriculum, exams and results.

“A huge number of youngsters, especially those living under the shadows of multi-dimensional poverty, struggled with attending online classes and were majorly impacted by the digital divide, while many others suffered from over-exposure to internet and therefore the social media and were subjected to online bullying and allied cyber-crimes,” she said.

“All of those, compounded with an overall anxiety of the uncertainty of the longer term, must be an excessive amount of in touch for his or her young and tender minds,” she added.

Akhila Sivadas, executive, Centre For Advocacy and Research, said alternative care and counselling models need to be developed together with key stakeholders and each effort should be made to require the learnings to a cross-section of society so that everyone takes the responsibility to curb this practice.

Mental health expert Prakriti Poddar, Managing Trustee at Poddar Foundation, said parents must understand how fragile their children’s mental well-being is and be proactive in assessing it.

“Teachers also got to be trained in identifying symptoms and patterns of mental issues. Aside from that, educational institutions must have psychological counselling programs in situ to assist students affecting their problems with confidentiality. Every child features a different coping mechanism. Therefore, the counselling programs must be flexible, to cater to the requirements of every child individually. If needed, a student must be mentioned a mental healthcare professional for timely intervention,” Poddar said.

Source

https://www.dtnext.in/News/TopNews/2021/10/31173655/1326788/31-children-died-by-suicide-every-day-in-India-In-.vpf