Mental healthcare has remained largely ignored in Bangladesh, with incidents of suicide increasing over the years and a great many suffering from depression.
At least 364 students alone committed suicide in Bangladesh over the past eight months this year while the country counts more than 10,000 annual deaths, on average, from suicide, but there is little pragmatic action on the part of the government to prevent such deaths.
Against this backdrop, Bangladesh today observes World Suicide Prevention Day 2022 as elsewhere around the world with the theme ‘Creating Hope through Action’ set by the World Health Organisation for this year.
To provide physical healthcare there is a network of over 15,000 hospitals and thousands of other facilities in function but for mental healthcare, there are only two institutes— Pabna Mental Hospital and the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital in Dhaka.
Experts said that people in the country don’t count mental health as an issue while the government largely ignored responsibility.
Aachol Foundation, a social organisation initiated by students, published a survey report on Friday at a virtual press conference, mentioning that at least 45 students commit suicide in the country every month.
The actual number, it said, must be much higher as the organisation collects information on only the reported cases.
‘Although suicide is a very sad incident, it is largely ignored by families and society,’ said Dhaka University psychology professor Kamal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, also a clinical psychologist.
Professor Kamal did not see any initiative by the state to prevent such untimely deaths, he said, adding that the incidents of suicide are increasing in modern life due to increasing stress in life.
Pointing out that suicide is a crime in the country, he observed that people subjected to criminal blame the person who committed suicide while the reasons that compel him/her to take own life are left unidentified and unaddressed.
‘We should focus on the reasons that cause the deaths,’ he said.
According to the clinical psychologist, the country’s education system and social structure are failing to keep people mentally healthy, resulting in increased suicides in society.
‘Students should be taught how to control emotions so that they can refrain from committing suicide,’ said Tansen Rose, founding president of the Aachol Foundation, which works primarily to sensitise students to the importance of mental health.
Having surveyed 150 national and local newspapers and online portals, the foundation found that 364 students committed suicide between January and August 2022. Of them, 194 were students of schools, 76 from colleges, 50 from universities while 44 studied in madrassahs.
According to the report, the highest 221 victims were girls, nearly 61 per cent of total, and school students represented slightly more than 53.3 per cent.
The report revealed that 25 per cent of the victims ended their life over heartbreaks in romantic relations while other major causes were pride, 24.73 per cent, family disputes, 6.59 per cent, rape or sexual harassment, 4.67 per cent.
Another significant number of people made attempts at suicide, according to the report.
Between March 2020 and June 2021, 151 students committed suicide in the country, while the figure was only 11 in 2018 and 19 in 2017, according to Jahangirnagar University’s Students Welfare and Counselling Centre.
Kaan Pete Roi, a non-profit organisation that provides free-of-cost emotional support over the phone to prevent suicides, reported that they had received 43,500 phone calls since 2013. Twenty per cent of them called the organisation with suicide risks, including 5 per cent with high risks, said it.
The organisation disclosed that 18.7 per cent of people in Bangladesh suffer from mental health problems.
Ashik Abdullah, the organisation’s head of training and outreach, said that 52 per cent of them were female.
‘When someone is in depression if she/he can find someone to listen to or caring support it greatly helps the person,’ he said.
The main purpose of the Kaan Pete Roi is to listen to the heart of anyone without judging the person, he noted.
Activists and experts said that families in many cases hid the actual number and causes of suicides to avoid police procedures.
There are some charities in the country promoting mental health while some universities have psychology department for educational purposes, they said.
But, they pointed out, that the government has no system to take care of people’s mental health.
National Institute of Mental Health director Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder said that the government was yet to have a programme to prevent suicides.
the government has, he mentioned, realised the necessity and adopted the National Mental Health Strategy 2020–2030 and the National Mental Health Policy in 2022, the implementation of which is yet to start.
He further said that the government had announced that counselors would be appointed to educational institutions while a multi-sectorial programme would be given emphasis on the strategy to keep people’s mental health sound.
Professor Kamal Uddin suggested creating adequate empathetic space for the children in the family, stopping victim blaming and providing recreational and sporting opportunities for the refreshment of people’s mind and bodies.
He also emphasised bringing about changes in the education system, which pushes students into the mad competition and establishing facilities for their mental counseling at door steps.
‘Until the reasons for suicide are not uprooted, suicides would not stop in society,’ he said.
Observing that everyone’s mental strength and control over emotion is not equal, he suggested that training could help individuals to enhance these capacities.
Published on New Age
Rashad Ahamad 