Maximum city on the edge

DNA Special-Web Exclusive

MUMBAI: Going by alter egos even the comic book perfect prototype Clark Kent aka Superman couldn't have pulled it off better than Cyrus Daruwalla. From Monday to Friday the 42-year-old chartered accountant is meticulously attired, hobnobbing with clients and number-crunching their worries away.

On Saturday, Daruwalla dons a different avatar and attends to calls that are literally about life and death. As a volunteer with Samaritans, a helpline dedicated to dissuading men and women who are seconds away from taking their own lives, Daruwalla has been leading this dual life for the last 14 years.

But his worry lines have been getting deeper even as the phone calls have been increasing by the day. It's a worry that Sarrokh Jijina, director of Samaritans, shares with Daruwalla.

"Till a couple of years ago, the average number of call per week was around 150," he says. "In January this year, we received 182 calls. In April this year we touched 217 calls. It isn't a coincidence that the month coincided with the results and admission season."

The story is repeated in another well-known helpline in the city. Aasra received 102 calls this January, which rose to an alarmingly high 257 in May, the peak of the college admission season. These figures are just an indication, some say more a symptom, of a deeper problem of a city on the edge and ready to take the extreme plunge if it comes to that.

But even by Mumbai's 'high-tolerance-for-anything' standards, May 16 was a shocker of a day, seven suicides in less than 24 hours. Since that fateful day, just two hospitals -- Sion and KEM -- have registered 30-odd cases of suicide each.

"We have been observing that on an average, there are at least 10 to 12 more patients in the months of March and April," says a doctor at Sion Hospital who did not want to be identified. Shubangi Parkar, Head of Department, Psychological Medicine, KEM Hospital, gives an additional insight.

"The number of cases in the age group of 11-19 years in the months of May and June is usually three to four times than those in other months," says Parkar, who is also the president of the Indian Psychiatry Association (West Zone). "Five out of the 26 cases registered at KEM in January this year belonged to the 11-19 age group, in comparison the numbers rose to ten in the month of May and almost tripled (13 cases) in June."

Parkar considers the rise in cases as a consequence of what she refers to as 'lost opportunities model'. "Students are expected to project themselves in the form of exams and if they fail to succeed, they think that they have failed to cross the bridge," she explains. "This is because the mind set is so tubular that they forget to see the host of other opportunities available to them."

Elaborating on the increased suicidal tendencies of this age group, Bharat Shah, psychiatrist with Lilavati Hospital, says, "This can be attributed to increased tension and expectations of peer groups." Even the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) obliquely admits that the problem is burgeoning among the GenXers.

"Thirty five per cent of suicides committed in India belong to the age group 15-29 years," says the NCRB annual report. "Between 1994 and 2004 there was a 27.5 per cent increase in the rate of suicides in India."

The figures are alarming enough for the world bodies to take note. "A minimum of three suicides takes place in Mumbai everyday," says a UN report. The distressing numbers often lead to a logical question. If everything from obesity to depression can be treated by popping a pill, why isn't an anti-suicide pill round the corner?

"A person who commits suicide is a depressed patient who needs to be treated by a psychiatrist. We prescribe anti-depressant medicines, which have a chemical component called lithium. Lithium and its components have the properties that curb suicidal tendency. But in spite of that, people do commit suicide," says Shah.

If suicidal tendencies are to do with a person's inner psyche, do new age mantras like vipasana or art of living courses hold the key? An Art of Living volunteer says, "We conduct workshops and have courses that deal with people who are highly depressed."

But most counselors maintain that it is important for clinically depressed people to be heard, for all that they may require is a couple of comforting words. But the stigma of illegality associated with suicides and the lack of a culture where depression is considered a "normal disease" often prevents people from reaching out at the right time. Shankar Narayanan, Secretary, Befrienders India, an organisation for suicide prevention, says, "Only one out five cases gets reported. And since a suicide attempt is illegal in India, many cases are registered as accidents."

As the debate to whether self destructive harm should be viewed as a cry for help or as illegal, ensues, the new urban social 'disorder' continues to find a firmer footing.

Helplines can be reached at: Samaritans-91-22-32473267
                                                Aasra-91-22-27546669,2754667
                                           

With Inputs from Padma Swaminathan