According to the reports by WHO, in an entire year, almost one million people die from suicide and 20 times more people attempt suicide; a global mortality rate of 16 individuals per 100,000, or one death in every 40 seconds and one attempt every 3 seconds, on an average.

In INDIA approximately 1.3-1.5 LAKH people commit suicide in a year. An Indian study showed that the suicide rate was at the peak among the age group of 15-29 years, i.e 38 per 100,000 population. The age group of 30-44 years succeeded which was 34 per 100,000 population. The rate of suicide was 18 per 100,000 in those aged 45-59 years and 7 per 100,000 in those aged >60 years.


As I’m a student of sociology it does remind me of Durkheim even today.  He used to emphasize that the phenomenon which seems to be individual, and psychological can be explained socially as a social fact. The individuals may have reasons for committing suicide, but these reasons are not the real cause “They may be said to indicate the individual’s weak points, where the outside currents bearing the impulse to self-destruction most easily find an introduction. But they are no longer the part of this current itself, and also along with it, it cannot help us to understand it”.  Different groups have their different collective sentiments, which produce different social norms. It is these social norms that affect individual decisions about suicide. In other words, changes in the collective sentiments lead to changes in social regulations, which as a result, leads to changes in suicide rates.


If we examine the relationship between the types of suicide and the two underlying facts – Integration and regulation. INTEGRATION refers to the strength of attachment that we have to society. REGULATION refers to the degree of the external constraint on people. Those two social subjects are continuous variables and suicide rates go up when any of these currents is too low or too high. So, we have four types of suicide.
  1. Egoistic  suicide- Due to low integration
  2. Altruistic suicide- Due to high integration
  3. Anomic suicide- Due to low regulation
  4. Fatalistic suicide- Due to high regulation


It results from the social isolation of the individual. It occurs among those who have fewer social bonding like people who live alone in rooming houses/hostel/boarding rather than with a family, or those burdened with intense spiritual loneliness. As Society is becoming more and more specialized/autonomous where social mobility is high has more chances of suicide due to very high achievement, high motivation, and high social change For example Religion protects man against the desire of self–destruction. What constitutes religion is the existence of beliefs and practices common to all or any faithful, traditional, and thus obligatory. The more numerous and robust these collective states of mind are, the stronger the combination of the religious community, also the greater the preservative value.

Protestants have a better suicide rate than Catholics since Protestant teachings emphasize that one is face to face alone with God and that one’s relationship is entirely direct, and one must, therefore, carry the complete burden of effort essential to one’s salvation. Roman Catholic teachings, however, make the church and its practices the idea for one’s relationship with God and supply mechanisms, e.g. the confessional, to share the burden to provide social support in life

ALTRUISTIC SUICIDE

It is the extreme opposite of Egoistic suicide. When the social integration is just too strong it can be clearly observed. It is instanced by cases such as the suicide of military officers for the honor of the regiment, the self-sacrifice of a leader’s family and retinue on their leader’s death, or the self-sacrifice of suicide bombers. In such cases, the bonds within their peer group are so strong and intense that they create among the members a very strong sense of group identity. Individuals are so dependent upon the group for their sense of identity, in fact, that they think themselves ignored/very less important than the group and are willing to give up their lives to respect and preserve it and its values.



ANOMIC SUICIDE

It is occasioned by insufficient social regulation of the individual. In effect, the moral code of society fails to maintain its hold over the individual. The seemingly paradoxical feature of suicide is that although suicide rates rose during times of economic recession, as we might expect, they also rose during times of economic boom and prosperity when we might expect them to decline. The superficial element of the explanation is that both situations—boom and bust—occasion dislocation between the individual’s social position and the socially prescribed morals which relate to them. Within a socially stratified society, there are different norms (moral standards) for the different social classes, and they specify the different tastes and aspirations of the members of the respective groups.

FOR EXAMPLE, middle-class people may expect to go to university, while lower-class people may not expect or even aspire to do so. Such norms develop on a collective scale and over time; since they arise from the real situations of the group, they have a realistic character. Even if lower-class people aspire to university attendance, they are less likely to succeed. However, economic bust and boom both result in abrupt movement of people up and also down the social scale. Middle-class people find themselves in greatly reduced circumstances in crashes, while lower-class people can be rendered enormously prosperous by economic booms. In other words, the standards to which they have become accustomed become inapplicable, precipitating suicide.

FATALISTIC SUICIDE

It occurs when individuals in a group are put in a position of such restriction that they feel nothing can be done to control their own life savings to exit from it, e.g. suicides among slaves. This argument for a balance between social regulation and individual autonomy concludes that the problem in modern, i.e. organic, society is that the balance has swung too much towards freedom from social regulation.


Talking about the Indian context, The NCRB information depends on police records. Sociocultural variables sabotage the veracity of these records. A Suicide attempt is a punishable offense under the Indian Penal Code (IPC Section 309); this outcome is under-reporting. The certification of Deaths in rural areas are been done by village headmen though all cases are investigated by the police. The process of registering a death is particularly not that effective in rural areas. Eventually, only about 25% of deaths are registered and in that also only 10% are medically certified. Death by suicide is frequently reported as due to illness or accident to avoid police investigation. The families of suicide victims usually do not want post-mortems because of the fear of mutilation of the body. In addition, the time-consuming nature of the process, and the stigma are also involved. Statistics derived from police records hence under-report suicides.

Among young people, suicidal behavior is mostly seen in the female gender. Starting from attending school or college, lack of independent decision-making power, etc. In addition to it premarital sex among external affairs, physical abuse at home, and probable common mental disorders were observed. Violence and psychological distress are to be independent factors of suicidal behavior. Factors associated with gender disadvantage increased vulnerability, particularly in rural women. 


Lastly, the solutions to suicide prevention may prove to be more complex than the problem of suicide itself. At least we should try to engage ourselves in group activities, societies, clubs, etc. to prevent this. To bring positivity we should take care of our mental health. Do practice Yoga, Pranayam, travel to our favorite places, etc. to avoid a stressful life.

So, do notice the different reasons for the Suicide if any you might have seen prior. Do try to save any such layman if they are trying to attempt. Do comment on your reviews if any. Fingers crossed!

Do contact or reach me out at contentwriterharsh1@gmail.com I’m just a mail away.