New Bill enhances India’s image in the world
By decriminalising suicide, the lawmakers in India have driven home the point that the law is no deterrent to suicide. The new Mental Health Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha has helped the NDA Government to move one step ahead in decriminalising the Section 309 under which attempting to commit suicide was a criminal offence. This will enhance India's outlook towards a critical mental health issue from a very pragmatic point of view and will obviously push the country to the club of the most liberal democracies of the world. With this India has finally eliminated another archaic colonial law bereft of any sense of human right from the dictionary of its penal code. As suicide rates have soared both at home and abroad, the Government must invest more on suicide prevention programmes skillfully tailored by experts including psychiatrists, social workers and counselors. It is hoped that suicide rates can drop only by treating it as a mental health problem than by prosecuting someone trying to take on life.
At present only 25 nations, criminalise suicide around the world. Many of the nations those who have taken a humane approach towards this issue have regarded it as a public health problem. In an age of globalization wherein we all have become a part of a fast-forwarding world and stress has enveloped many of our daily lives. While dealing with suicide, an extreme level of mental trauma which finally translates into a physical action must be handled more carefully with expert counseling, medical help and emotional support. Flipping through a series of cross-continental research studies reveal that suicide is not caused by only one reason and it has always been an integral part of human civilisation. There are cultural underpinnings for our attitudes towards suicide which prevents many of us particularly in India view it as rather a taboo or at times as a celebration of heroism (when it comes to Sati). Discussing in public about the pros and cons of self-destruction is largely underplayed or rather discouraged. Simultaneously, in some places the victims of suicide bidders' families are cornered in social circles and eventually they lose their high esteem in traditional societies. Whereas participating in sati is still socially and culturally endorsed among some of the warrior castes in India thought it has been banned since long. Sensing the complex conceptual and realistic dimensions of suicide, an early identification of vulnerable individuals and providing them with required mental health support accompanied by clinical diagnosis will definitely nip this illness in bud. Thus the new Bill which provides that a person attempting to commit suicide suffers from mental stress and should not be punished will help countering one of a potentially pressing socio-cultural problem in our society.