Sisupalan, a 42-year-old casual worker from Vithura in Keralas Thiruvananthapuram district, doused his wife and two children with petrol as they lay asleep late at night a few months ago. He set them on fire and watched their bodies writhe. Then, Sisupalan immolated himself.
A few months before this incident, Nirmal Kumar, a Thiruvananthapuram-based distributor for a confectionary unit, used the companys funds to personal effects. When the company officials pressed him to return the money, Kumar grew desperate. He and his wife hanged themselves from ceiling fans after strangling their five-year-old daughter.
Prakash Rao was a hotelier in Kollam. He had a reputation for prompt repayment of loans he took from the market. When a particular loan proved too much for him, the puzzled hotelier plotted a grisly escape. He sat with his wife and four children around the dining table and sipped orange juice laced with pesticides.
These tragic episodes are listed in police records as family suicides, a runaway phenomenon unique to Kerala that has begun to assume alarming proportions. Family suicides have added a disconcerting new dimension to an already high general suicide rate in the southern state. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Keralas suicide rate is three times the national average. But the authorities have no comprehensive data on family suicides. Until now, police records have categorised suicide cases under three heads: male, female and children. With the sharp increase in family suicides, the state crime records bureau has now been directed to maintain separate records of such cases.
A.K. Jayasree, an epidemiologist in community medicine at the General Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, puts last years tally of family suicides at 21, with 11 of these occurring in March. Since March is the fiscal year-end, Jayasree argues that debt is primarily responsible for pushing the cash-strapped families to suicides. This appears to be borne out by the recent trends. In the Vithura case, for instance, a suicide note left behind by Sisupalan reads: "I cannot repay my debt. My family will not survive without me. Therefore, we are leaving together."
This has raised speculation that family suicides are essentially male-inspired, with the rest of the family being forced to comply. James Vadackumchery, criminologist at the Police Training College in Thiruvananthapuram, says in family suicides, children are murdered. "They are innocent victims of a decision imposed on them," he points out.
Vadackumchery, who has researched suicides in Kerala, says family suicides show a sharp rise in the 90s and the tragedy usually involves the middle-class.
Researchers, social workers and the state authorities appear to agree on some broad parameters concerning family suicides: debt, marital stress, family conflicts, nuclear families, media invasion and spread of the consumerist culture through satellite TV.
Notes Sugathakumari, chairperson of Keralas Womens Commission: "Family suicides occur when husbands incur huge debt. Even men with modest salaries now dream big, thanks to consumerism." Her colleague and secretary of the panel, V. Bhavani, looks for clues in Keralas high literacy rate. "Education has raised expectation levels which the younger generation finds difficult to fulfil. So, disillusionment sets in," she explains.
But such explanations fail to resolve the paradox: NCRB findings show that over the past two-and-a-half decades, Keralas suicide rate nearly doubled from 14.8 per lakh population to 28 per lakh. Yet, in this period, Kerala made spectacular gains in areas such as enhancing life expectancy, curbing infant mortality and spreading literacy.
The statistics seem to mock Keralas quality-of-life indicators. In 97, 8,961 people committed suicide here, of whom 6,215 (70 per cent) were males. Of 2,746 female suicide cases, 1,490 (54 per cent) victims were housewives. The NCRB report reveals that the majority of the states suicide victims preferred to hang themselves. Consumption of poison was the next popular choice.
Cold facts, no doubt. But they are grim pointers to the damage the irresponsible nouveau riche can do to the underclass with their unabashed and vulgar indulgence in conspicuous consumerism.
