UPSC SOCIOLOGY MAINS SYLLABUS
Paper 2 – Section C – Social Changes in India
(vii) Challenges of Social Transformation:
a) Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability.
b) Poverty, deprivation and inequalities.
c) Violence against women.
d) Caste conflicts.
e) Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism.
f) Illiteracy and disparities in education.
CONTEXT
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
STATISTICS ON SUICIDES
According to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 1.64 lakh people died by suicide in 2021 — an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2020. The NCRB report also stated that more than 1,00,000 people die by suicide in the country every year. In the past three years, the suicide rate in the country has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population. Most suicides in India are by youth and middle-aged adults — with 65 per cent of the suicides in 2020 being reported in the age group of 18-45 years.
REASONS FOR SUICIDE
While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis. Risk factors include experience of loss, loneliness, discrimination, a relationship break-up, financial problems, chronic pain and illness, violence, abuse, and conflict or other humanitarian emergencies. The strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt.
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION STRATEGY FRAMEWORK
First, it seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
Second, it seeks to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years.
Third, it aims to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
The fourth objective of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy is to strengthen surveillance of suicide and further generation of evidence through evaluation, that will ensure improvement in the programme quality.
OTHER GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES
The National Mental Health Policy (2014) sees prevention of mental disorders, reduction of suicide and attempted suicide as core priority areas. The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 brought in some necessary changes. The Act that came into force from May 2018 effectively decriminalised attempted suicide, which was punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. Several national programmes such as the National Mental Health Program, National Palliative Care Program, Ayushman Bharat and Nasha Mukti Abhiyaan Task Force are also in place.
DURKHEIM AND SOCIOLOGY OF SUICIDE
In 1897, Emile Durkheim presented the first notable theory of suicide, which focused on suicide at a societal level. The key variables he identified were social integration and social regulation, and he examined how these variables played out in relation to the four types of suicide that he identified.
The first type, Egoistic suicide, is seen in individuals who lack social integration and are detached from traditional social bonds or society. These people are also often isolated and lack a sense of belonging.
Altruistic suicides – the second type – occur when individuals are too fully socially integrated, and, thus, they feel that their death would benefit society.
The third type is Anomic suicides, which most often happen in societies where there is minimal social regulation. This lack of social regulation results in a failure to instill a sense of meaning – or a failure to provide a moral framework – in the lives of its citizens and results in a state of social and economic disorder.
The fourth and final type is Fatalistic suicides, which occur in societies where social regulation is extreme and authority is oppressive and controlling. Suicidal persons in these situations would rather die than continue living in such stifling conditions.