Dear Editor, It is generally believed that a person, in a state of extreme emotional pressure, sometimes unable to handle himself, embraces death. Such deaths have often been viewed as result of direct causes but if there is an unexpected increase in the incidence of suicide, then it should be a matter of concern for anyone. Especially, when a person ceases to see any option but to commit suicide due to circumstances arising out of Government policies. Incidents of people’s suicide due to lack or various other reasons are not new and the statistics of suicides of farmers in debt especially in the last several years have forced one to think about the wider perspective of this problem. Despite this, no sincere initiative was taken by the government in the direction of making such policies, so that no person would face the risk of suicide. It is not unreasonable that today the noose of financial crisis is tightening so much that many people are losing their lives. The picture presented by the government in Parliament on Wednesday is enough to show that the area in which the government could have taken some concrete steps at the policy and implementation level to solve the complex issue of suicide or reduce its intensity could have been done, nothing was done in that too. Rather, during the last two-and-a-half years due to the pandemic or various other reasons, the network of debt and unemployment that has arisen, the patience of many people trapped in it has been answered. Quoting the National Crime Records Bureau, the Union Minister of State for Home told in Rajya Sabha that during the last three years, more than 25,000 people committed suicide due to unemployment and debt. According to this figure, about nine thousand people have given their lives due to unemployment and more than sixteen thousand people have become bankrupt due to the vicious cycle of debt. The total number of people who committed suicide in the last two years was about three lakhs. Significantly, in view of Corona, the government had imposed a complete ban, which is still imposed from time to time in many places. The biggest impact of this was on those people who are dependent on daily wages or jobs for their livelihood. Among the crores of people whose livelihood was snatched, it was not possible for many to get even the minimum expenses to survive. Similarly, many people got trapped in the debt trap and after that they were not able to repay due to loss of income. Due to only these two reasons, more than twenty five thousand people could not bear the compulsion and then the pressure and accepted suicide as the solution. Certainly suicide cannot be the solution to the problem in any case. In parallel with the condition of the victim and the pressure arising out of it, the reasons for this extend to the policies of the government at the systemic level. The truth is that suicides are deaths that are avoidable but it is up to the vision and will of the government that what kind of social development policies it implements. Vijay Garg.
