Reports have it that Thapa, a married man, was having an extramarital affair and was stressed about recovering Rs 5 million that he had invested in a business. Thapa was among 69 men in Kathmandu who have taken their own lives from May 2010 until today.[break]
According to Nepal Police, in the past four years 9,340 Nepalis chose to take matters into their own hands rather than look life in the eye and face it down. Almost 60 percent of those who ended their own lives were illiterate, while 30 percent were poor.
Most of these people were between the ages of 26 to 50. Of the total suicides, 58 percent occurred in the Terai belt.
Most suicides from mid-March to mid-June
Contrary to popular belief that sombre, gloomy weather sees a rise in the number of people who take their own lives, the maximum number of suicides in Nepal takes place during the advent of spring. "May be it is the change in season and sprouting of new life in the environment that heightens people´s sense of failure, but suicide cases rise from mid-March and remain high until mid-June every year," informs Superintendent of Police Mahesh Bikram Shah of Banke.
Anthropologists point to the sense of alienation as a contributing factor.
"As per the theories, the number of people taking their own lives is directly affected by the social changes going on around them," says Om Gurung, head of department at Tribhuvan University´s Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology.
"The sense of estrangement from the community and society and from values -- called social alienation in sociological terms-- is the reason for suicide in any society," he further says.
Alienation comes from the absence of a favorable life situation and support from family, community and society, Gurung explains.
According to him, the sense of failure and humiliation that comes with alienation, unemployment and illiteracy can also result in a person´s decision to do what most consider the most cowardly thing of all.
-59 pc illiterate; 30 pc poor-
Nepal Police data shows that 59 percent of people who have committed suicide since 2007 were illiterate while 30 percent committed suicide because of poverty.
SP Shah says most people take their own life when they do not see any alternative or are not strong enough to seize available options. Some go to extreme measures to plan the suicide while some do it on an impulse, according to Shah.
The data of the past four years shows that 13 percent of suicides were impulsive acts.
"Most of these impulsive acts are done to cause pain and trauma to the persons or factors that compelled them to suicide," says Shah.
However, psychiatrists do not see social changes such as financial, political, environmental and change in the community as factors that result in a person taking his or her own life.
They believe suicides are a result of psychological disorder.
"Though specific reasons for suicide cannot be pin-pointed, as with any other human behavior, 95 percent of suicides globally are as a result of mental disorder and 65 percent due to depression. Other psychological problems could be schizophrenia, alcohol and substance abuse, anti-social personality, anxiety and so forth," says Dr Rabi Shakya, a consultant psychiatrist at the Mental Hospital, Lagankhel.
However, police records do not fully support Shakya´s statement. According to those records, of those who committed suicide in the past four years, only 13 percent had mental problems.
The number of recorded suicides went down by 5.63 percent in 2009/2010 compared to 2008/2009. The number in 2008/2009 was 0.4 percent down from 2007/2008.
"The slight decrease in suicides could be because Nepali society is opening up, with easy access to education, options of foreign employment and other opportunities available within the country, despite the political instability," says Gurung of the Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology.
Suicide a crime
Like in many other countries, suicide is a crime in Nepal and is treated as homicide.
"Even in cases where there is a suicide note clearly showing that it was self-willed, families have to be arrested and investigated for homicide and this makes it far more difficult as the secondary victims do not cooperate with police," says Superintendent of Police Tarini Prasad Lamsal at Central Department of Police, Naxal.
Desperate to avoid legal hassles and social stigma, there is a tendency to hush up a suicide, and this results in incomplete data.
"We do not have a mechanism for counseling the family in case of suicide or the person who attempts the suicide, and such counseling is very necessary as it helps them come to terms with a sad incident in their lives. Police do counseling but it is not enough," says SP Lamsal.
He stressed that it would be unfair to burden the state alone with such matters, and non-governmental organizations should step forward to institutionalize counseling.
"The state could incorporate it in law and other organizations could implement the services," he says.
Life can be squeezed out, bled out, drowned out or poisoned out but whatever the means or underlying reasons, suicide shows the fragility of life. Research shows that suicide can be pre-empted simply by talking about it and by being there for the person who has lost all hope.
"Nepali society stigmatizes suicide like it does any other disease, and that is wrong," says Gurung at Tribhuvan University.
Related story
Children of illiterate parents outshine educated in Public Serv...
