Daily Times

“There was darkness all around; I
could feel myself being dragged down, in a whirlpool of heaviness. There was nothing left for me to do…nothing, which I could see. I had lost all the battles and the hope. I had looked for answers but could find none; a persistent voice in my head kept on telling me that the only way out was to lose consciousness, if only I could somehow escape everything. I could feel the pain, which my children would have to bear. It was immense and unforgivable of me to put them through this but I was being pulled, down and down, further into the dark vortex, sinking and sinking, with no way to come up for air, no will to try…dejected and beaten, hopeless and confused. I decided to embrace the deep waters below; I just wanted to lose consciousness, just wanted peace. Death had engulfed my soul, my life, long before I decided to jump.”

A few months ago a woman jumped into the canal along with her three minor daughters in Chunian, Punjab. According to reports, some good Samaritans were able to rescue the mother and the eldest child; the younger two children perished, unable to sustain the ferocity of the water. As can be expected, an FIR was lodged by the woman’s husband against her under sections 302 and 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), for qatl-e-amd and ‘attempt to commit suicide’. Section 325 reads: ‘Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term, which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both’.

As per data available with the World Health Organisation (WHO), one million people die annually from suicide. That is one death per 40 seconds and a global mortality rate of 16 per 100,000; suicide rates have increased by 60 percent in the last 45 years worldwide with suicide being in the top three leading causes of death in some countries. There are 20 suicide attempts for each completed suicide; due to an increase in young people in both developed and developing nations they are now a group at the highest risk for suicide in a third of countries. In the west mental disorders are a major risk factor for suicide whereas impulsiveness plays an important role in Asian countries. Suicide is a complex act with psychological, social, biological, cultural and environmental factors involved.

Shneidman, an American psychologist, suicidologist and thanatologist, distinguishes myths and facts about suicide: most people who kill themselves give definite warnings and clues about their intentions. Most suicidal people ‘gamble with death’ as they are indecisive about either living or dying, leaving it to others to save them; people have suicidal tendencies for a limited period of time as opposed to forever; improvement following a suicide crisis does not mean that the risk is over as most suicides occurs within three months of this period when individuals have enough energy to put their morbid thoughts and feelings into effect. Suicide is represented proportionately in all segments of society, being confined neither to the rich nor to the poor and not all suicidal people display mental disorders though they may be extremely unhappy.

The patterns of suicide rate vary from country to country. Shneidman cited religious affiliations and beliefs to account for these differences. It was postulated that countries that are predominantly Catholic, Jewish or Muslim have a lower suicide rate than those which are Protestant or otherwise, however, exceptions like Austria may be there. Religion plays an important role as a deterrent for suicide. The Quran states: “And do not kill yourselves. Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you.” Research suggests that not actual religion but an individual’s commitment or devoutness, irrespective of the particular religion may be the actual deterrent. More women than men attempt to commit suicide, however, more men succeed in completing it due to the more lethal means used. Likewise traditionally, in the west, suicide rates are higher for elderly men than any other group; because of advances in medical-care, people now have longer life-spans. Clinical depression plays an active role in 50 percent of elderly suicides, unlike young people the elderly are more determined in their decision to take their life and are thus more likely to succeed.

Most of the countries in the world have decriminalised the offence of attempting to commit suicide. Countries like India made important legislative changes and included abetment to suicide as an offence on the statute books. An amendment to the Indian Evidence Act: ‘Presumption as to abetment of suicide by a married woman’, reads “113A: When the question is whether the commission of suicide by a woman had been abetted by her husband or any relative or her husband and it is shown that she had committed suicide within a period of seven years from the date of her marriage and that her husband or such relative of her husband had subjected her to cruelty, the court may presume, having regard to all the other circumstances of the case, that such suicide had been abetted by her husband or by such relative of her husband.

Pakistan has no official data available on suicide rates but certain organisations have suggested that the suicide rate in Pakistan increased by 24 percent in 2011. Pakistan has no specific law in place that makes abetment or instigation to suicide an offence, and it still prosecutes women who are driven to suicide by their husbands and in-laws by cruelty of conduct. The woman who flung herself in the canal with her three young daughters probably had no intention of living, no expectation of out-surviving her daughters. She probably tried to take her life because she was driven to it, most likely for bearing girls instead of boys, and she decided she did not have any other option but to jump into the ever deepening vortex of despair, to lose consciousness- forever. But she could not leave her children behind in the hands of the very people who had pushed her into the darkness. How cruel of the ‘good Samaritans’ to save her? She had no intention of living, and that too without her children. When she needed help there was none…only the blackness and the heaviness, the audacity of her abettors to press criminal charges on her.

Suicide is a global problem, and although there is no cure for suicide, as the person no longer exists, there can be prevention. Research shows that during the past 50 or so years, emphasis is more on suicide prevention than on treatment. WHO suggests that ‘strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide, such as firearms or toxic substances like pesticides, have proved to be effective in reducing suicide rates; however, there is a need to adopt multi-sectoral approaches involving many levels of intervention and activities. There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention and treatment of depression and alcohol and substance abuse can reduce suicide rates, as well as follow-up contact with those who have attempted suicide’.

Pakistan needs to abolish Section 325 of the PPC to stop prosecuting people in crisis — who need treatment and help — to realise that abettors and instigators need to be punished. Suicide prevention centres should be established and awareness spread of an alternative choice. Suicidal people need to know and understand that instead of heeding to the sounds within there is a way out of the vortex.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court