India, the country with the largest young population has been reeling under a strange threat of increase in suicidal tendencies.
Suicide rate in India is 11.4 per one lakh population in males and 8 in females. But what is alarming is the majority of suicides have been witnessed in the 20-29 age group wherein 59.4 per cent suicides have been reported. Migrants to cities have been found to be most vulnerable to suicidal tendencies as 57.4 per cent suicides have been seen by migrants from different States. A day before the World Suicide Prevention Day, Faculty from the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College & Hospital-32, Chandigarh organised an interaction with media for creating awareness on combating suicide.
Dr BS Chavan Head of Psychiatry, said that suicidal tendencies among people needed to be checked through societal support. Criticising the role being played by media in reporting suicide cases, Chavan said that media needs to maintain a balance while reporting suicide cases as different studies have established that media reporting of suicides triggers imitative suicides. Explaining the impact of media reports, he said that risk of imitative suicide is highest during the first 3 days of publication of the report and pertains up to two weeks after the reporting.
He said there is no doubt that suicide is a news worth reporting but media needs to impose a self restraint while reporting such cases. Sensationalism and glorification of suicide reports must be avoided and the reasons behind suicides should not be reported unless they are justified.
Quoting a study conducted by Dr Nitin Gupta and Shikha Tyagi, Dr Chavan said that the study has found that in most of the cases reported by media on suicides, the reasons reported are wrong.
“Such reporting results in unwarranted troubles for the family members who are suffering the plight of losing someone dear,” he said.
Appealing for reporting suicides in a constructive manner, he said that media should use the opportunity to make people aware about issues related with mental health and suicides. “Media should propagate the methods that can be handy in dealing with people under stress or mental stigma,” he added.