Bengaluru: Every hour, one young life gets snuffed out because of suicide in the country. As attempting suicide has been decriminalised, there is no proper organisation or data to keep track of suicide rates in the state and country. Before criminalising the suicide attempt, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) at the Centre and the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) in states kept track of suicide rates and now, that vacuum has to be filled, said speakers at the World Suicide Prevention Day with the theme, ‘Working together to prevent suicide’, organised by the Psychiatry Department of Ramaiah Medical College on Friday..
The new Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 passed on May 29 decriminalises suicide attempt. The act says, “Any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress and shall not be tried and punished.”
Speakers at the event said that suicide is a complex health tragedy where it has overtaken many other causes of death. The country has more deaths due to suicides than other combined deaths related to age and maternal issues. Indian women contribute more than a third of such deaths, while country’s men contribute nearly one in four global deaths due to suicide. India stands at the 21st place, contributing 16.3 per one lakh suicides in the world.
On decriminalising suicide attempt, Dr Pratima Murthy, professor and HoD of Psychiatry, Nihmans, said, “With the decriminalisation of suicide, theoretically NCRB can no longer keep a track of suicide attempts. We will have to set up systems in place which will monitor suicide prevalence or surveillance data if we really intend to bring suicidal rates down.”
