Tracing Why Housewives In India Suicide Every 25 Minutes

JAKARTA - India's National Crime Registry (NCRB) recorded that 22,372 housewives committed suicide last year. On average, there are about 61 people commit suicide per day or one person every 25 minutes. What's the reason?

According to the data, housewives accounted for 14.6 percent of the total 153,052 suicides recorded in India in 2020 and more than 50 percent of the total number of women who committed suicide. And this number in 2020 is not an anomaly.

Since 1997, when the NCRB began collecting suicide data by profession, more than 20,000 mothers have committed suicide each year. In 2009, the number increased to 25,092.

These reports always address the causes of mothers to commit suicide to family or marriage-related issues. So is it true?

Cause of suicide

To answer that, the BBC interviewed a clinical psychologist from Varanasi, India, Usha Verma Srivastava. According to him, the root of the problem is rampant domestic violence.

"Women are tough, but tolerance has limits," said Verma. "Most girls are married off as soon as they turn 18, the minimum age for marriage."

"She became a wife and daughter-in-law and spent all day at home cooking and cleaning and doing housework. All sorts of restrictions were placed on her, she had little personal freedom and rarely had access to her own money."

After marriage, the education and dreams of these housewives were put aside. Then despair and disappointment emerged into a torment.

Meanwhile, for mothers who are older, according to Verma, there are different reasons. "Many develop 'empty cage syndrome' after their children grow up and leave home. Many also develop perimenopause symptoms which can lead to depression and crying."

Verma said actually preventing people from committing suicide was easy. "If you stop or stop someone for a while, chances are they will stop too."

That's because, as psychiatrist Soumitra Pathare explains, many suicides in India are impulsive. "Men come home, beats wife, and she kills herself."

Independent researchers, still quoted by the BBC, say a third of Indian women who end their lives have a history of domestic violence. However, this is not mentioned in the NCRB data as the culprit.

Survive under pressure

The strength of housewives is illustrated by the story of a mental health psychologist, Chaitali Sinha. "Many women remain in violent situations but actively maintain their sanity simply because of the informal support they get."

Sinha previously worked for three years at a government mental hospital in Mumbai. He provides counseling to survivors of suicide attempts. According to her findings, the women formed small support groups while traveling on local trains or with neighbors while buying vegetables.

"They have no other way to express their aspirations. Sometimes their sanity depends on the conversations they can have with just one person."

"Housewives have a safe space after the men go to work, but that disappears during the pandemic. In situations of domestic violence, it also means they are often stuck with the culprit. And that limits their range of motion to make them happy. The result is anger. , heartache and sadness build up over time and suicide becomes their last resort," said Sinha.

Globally, India reports the highest number of suicides. Indian men make up a quarter of total global suicides. While Indian women account for 36 percent of all global suicides in the age range of 15 to 39 years.

*Read other information about SUICIDE, read another interesting article from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.