Daily Times

Suicide is an act of killing oneself intentionally. The causes of suicide vary according to individuals and society. According to psychologists, the common factors of suicide are depression, personality disorder, extreme use of alcohol, schizophrenia, financial issues etc. Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French Sociologist wrote a book “Suicide” in 1897, in which he highlighted four main types of suicide; egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic suicide. Egoistic suicide is committed when a person is selfish and usually acts on self-interest that may eventually lead to isolation and suicide.

Altruistic suicide involves a person who takes their life for the betterment of others, like Aitzaz Hasan, a young student from the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who gave up his life in order to protect the children of his school from a suicide bomber. Anomic suicide is when social norms fail to regulate individuals in a society, while fatalistic suicide occurs when there are a lot of road blocks in a person’s will to live. Durkheim found that the ratio of suicides varies according to gender, age, race, region and economic status. These four types of suicide occur due to an imbalance in two social forces: social integration and moral regulation.

Recently, a group of researchers from Aga Khan University Karachi conducted a study and found that about 800,000 incidents of suicide occur annually in the world, and about 75 percent of them are from Low and Middle Income Countries, which includes Pakistan.

Suicide is becoming commonplace in Pakistan and it is the most prevailing cause of unnatural death in the country. The crude suicide rate in Pakistan from 2005 to 2015 was 2.1 deaths from 100,000 inhabitancies. There are no national suicide statistics compiled within the country but findings from unofficial data collected over a two year period showed that about 300 cases had been reported across the country, with the majority of them being men under 30 years of age. Additionally, the causes behind these suicides were domestic issues, unemployment, social pressures, poverty and homelessness etc. According to Psychologist Dr Darya Khan Laghari, the suicide rate is very high among youths of Pakistan, and that about 80 percent of people commit suicide due to depression.

There are no national suicide statistics compiled within the country but findings from unofficial data collected over a two year period showed that about 300 cases had been reported across the country, with the majority of them being men under 30 years of age. Additionally, the causes behind these suicides included domestic issues and unemployment

Like other regions of Pakistan, the suicide rate has also been on the rise in Balochistan. Nabeel Qadir, a well-known singer of Balochi Language, he was found dead on September 23, 2018 around 6:00 am in his room. According to his family, the cause of death was suicide, and while the news of his death was soon trending on social media, there was no real indication as to what caused him to go down this route.

Majority of the cases of suicide go unreported in Balochistan because it is considered as an affront to the family’s honour. As per the classification outlined by Durkheim the fatalistic type of suicide is the most prevalent in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan. One of the major causes behind Females suicides in the region have been relating to marriage, and the freedom of choice for women to choose their potential husbands. A similar case took place recently in Turbat, where a woman took her life after being pressurised in to a marriage she did not want to be a part of.

A boy named Momen hanged himself last year in Buleda — a village in district Kech — when he was pressurised by his family due to some domestic issues. Another 14 year boy named Mojahid from the same village also hanged himself due to domestic issues. Many youngsters have even started using suicide as a threat to get their way, as most cases of suicide occur due to the strict societal norms and regulations imposed on the people, especially the youth. Thus, cases of suicide occur daily but no one is there to report them, as there is neither a state controlled effort to compile national suicide statistics, nor is there an NGO willing to do the same. What is needed is for the Federal government and all provincial governments to work together to solve this prevailing issue, before it gets even more out of hand.

The writer is MPhil Scholar at Department of Sociology, University of Karachi, and Freelance writer and Researcher. Can be reached at nadilbaloch75@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, September 27^th 2018.