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Young brides in India are dying by suicide in alarming numbers
By Holly Robertson
Posted about 3 hours ago
India accounts for almost 40 per cent of female suicides worldwide — and young, married women are most at risk.
Key points:
- Nearly two in five global female suicides occur in India — and that's just those recorded
- Factors reportedly include arranged marriages, young motherhood and domestic violence
- It has been described as a "public health crisis" that the Government is failing to address
Women in India are also 2.1 times more likely to die by suicide than the global average, accounting for 71 per cent of deaths in women aged under 40, according to a study published in medical journal The Lancet.
Suicide was the leading cause of death in women aged 15 to 29, with death rates higher among women than men in that age group, it said.
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The study also found "arranged and early marriage, young motherhood, low social status and domestic violence" were factors contributing to the nation's high suicide rates.
"In Western countries a marriage is protective to women but in India it seems that marriage is not protective," said Dr Manjula O'Connor, a Melbourne-based psychiatrist who works closely with Australia's Indian community.
"It relates to the patriarchal factors and the level of oppression and lack of autonomy that women feel within a marital situation."
University of Adelaide associate professor Peter Mayer, who is an expert on suicide in India, has coined it the "desperate housewives" effect.Though the female suicide rate has actually fallen since 1990, nearly two in five global female suicides are recorded in India, making it a "public health crisis" in the country, Dr Mayer said.
As in most countries, overall suicide death rates in India are higher among men than women, at 21.2 and 14.7 per 100,000 people respectively, but globally Indian men account for about 25 per cent of male suicides, the Lancet study said.
Dr O'Connor said she believed suicide was also a problem among young women in Australia's Indian community.
However, statistics are difficult to pin down, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics does not release information on suicide deaths based on ethnicity or culture.
Family violence and murder in Australian Hindu and Sikh communities
There are growing concerns about a recent, significant increase in domestic violence in Hindu and Sikh communities, a crisis which has become public in a spate of horrific deaths.
Many of those affected were young women who travelled from India to Australia to enter arranged marriages, arriving with "dreams of freedom" only to find their new husband is "coercive or controlling", Dr O'Connor said.
"They fight back against the demand for dowry or control over their wages, and when they fight back it leads to family violence," she said, which can compound with stressors such as social isolation and mental health issues.
The practice of dowry — common in India and among Indian communities overseas — involves a bride's family giving money or goods to her husband once they are married.
A Senate inquiry into dowry abuse in Australia is due to hand down its report on Thursday December 6.
Discussion of suicide and related mental illness still carries a heavy stigma in India, with researchers saying it presents a barrier to addressing some of the root causes.
"In India the idea that you might have some kind of mental health problem is not only a problem for you, it will affect your sister's ability to get married," Dr Mayer said.
"There are all sorts of constraints to one's ability to admit depression."
PHOTO: India's Parliament passed the Mental Healthcare Act in 2017, but it has been the subject of some controversy. (Flickr: Nevil Zaveri)
Conflicting legislation and a lack of prevention
These constraints have also included the law — under the Penal Code, attempting suicide is punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine, and hospitals have been required to report patients to authorities.
Last year, Parliament in India passed the Mental Healthcare Act, which in theory decriminalises suicide attempts.
But the founder of Indian suicide prevention organisation Sneha, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, said that in practice the two pieces of legislation now exist in opposition to one another.
"We still do not know what the hospital has to do — do they report it or do they just ignore it?," she said. "Some do, some don't. They are very confused."
India is also struggling to deliver basic health services and eliminate disease, Dr Mayer said, let alone provide adequate specialised mental health services."To really deal with the suicide crisis it would have to invest in finding policies that work," he said, such as counselling and medication.
All of which could be done — but there is "a lack of awareness" of the scale of the problem and "no public pressure for change", he said.
According to the World Health Organisation, the most recently available statistics show there were just 0.3 psychiatrists per 100,000 people in India in 2011.
Dr Vijayakumar said the Government "has not made any effort at all" to tackle the issue until now, though she received notification on Wednesday that the Government wanted to develop a national prevention strategy.
India's Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/young-women-india-dying-suicide-alarming-numbers/10562076
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