CHENNAI: "Do you know how a mental patient feels? That is how I feel," says Nagalakshmi A, a resident of Perumbakkam, a resettlement colony in Chennai. On Tuesday night, her phone would not stop ringing.
"Those loan people are giving us trouble, I still have Rs 4,100 to repay from the Rs 30,000 loan the government gave us about two years ago. The repayment is due soon, but how will I pay if we don’t have money?" she asks.
The pandemic and lockdown pushed people already living on the margins into poverty and debt. Amid multiple waves of COVID-19, the profound distress of scores, tied to uncertainty and financial instability, went unnoticed.
"There were only difficulties during the lockdown, we were stuck at home, with neither water nor proper food," she says, fretting about her mother Saroja, homeless since an eviction drive in December 2020.
This clamour in Nagalakshmi's mind could be hopelessness stemming from uncertainty about the pandemic, explains Dr Thara Rangaswamy of The Schizophrenia Research Foundation. During the pandemic, it was mostly the loss of livelihood and earnings that affected the people in the informal sector and led them to suicidal ideation and symptoms like that, she adds.
Among the informal sector, financial distress was predominant, concurs Preetha Krishnadas, deputy director of The Banyan, which works on mental health and homelessness. "We saw that around 60 per cent in the sector lost their jobs and had neither provisions nor daily income. They were forced to borrow small amounts from their neighbours or moneylenders to get by," she said.
Data deluge
AnathPur, while collating the results of the Tamil Nadu COVID Pulse survey, found the lockdown's effects to be debilitating. "In four rounds conducted between June 2020 to August 2021, just 4 per cent of the sample contracted COVID-19. But, in just the first phase conducted in June, 33 per cent reported mental health challenges," she says.
Poongavanam P, a fish seller at Kasimedu, recalls several people in her locality had died by suicide in the first lockdown.
"They had no income and lots of debt. I can’t put a number on it.”
According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data of 2020, that preceded the pandemic, in 2020, Maharashtra accounted for 13.10 per cent of suicides and Tamil Nadu with 11 per cent. Profession-wise, daily-wage earners were at greater risk (24.6 per cent) followed by housewives (14.6 per cent).
Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar from the Sneha Suicide Helpine says, during the pandemic, tea shop vendors and those running roadside shops were hit badly.
"Many have taken loans from moneylenders at a huge interest rate… There's also shame and some people have gotten addicted to online gaming trying to make a quick buck. This has invariably led to more debts," she adds.
Most such deaths by suicide have been in West and North Chennai, Dr Vijayakumar says. While the pandemic has spared none, most vulnerable groups - and the ones that dial the Sneha Helpline - remain youngsters, women, and small business owners, she adds.
Coping with stress
Forty-five-year-old Bhavani V from Pondy Bazaar says she coped with the loss of income by working multiple jobs and taking thandal: "I sold handkerchiefs, masks, and did domestic work during the pandemic. I pawned seven sovereigns of my daughter’s jewellery that I had set aside for her marriage."
To cope with the strain, Bhavani started talking out loud to herself on the streets between work.
"My husband died six years ago. There was nobody to talk to about these difficulties but to God," he says.
"During the lockdown, many from the informal sector called the helplines. They are in distress but the kind of help they require foremost has been practical help and practical support. The counselling comes later," says Soumitra Pathare, director for Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy Pune.
For Ramani D, an apple seller from Koyambedu, grief for her daughter followed her into the pandemic and was compounded by debt.
"Four months before COVID-19 hit, I took a Rs 2 lakh loan - with a monthly interest of Rs 240 - from Dhanlaxmi Bank for my 20-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with a heart condition. However, sh died after 13 days in a private hospital. Only the loan that remains now. I don't know how I will repay it," she says.
"As the COVID waves kept coming, things started getting worse, be it financial or emotional, things were adding up," says Dr Rangaswamy. Krishnadas adds that grief too heightened suicidal ideation in many – the sense of loss, the helplessness and guilt.
Impact on women
Experts say men coped with the stresses with alcohol and when TASMACs were closed battled withdrawal. Dr Rangaswamy and Krishnadas say the pandemic had an additional impact on women – they found themselves trapped in their homes, many of which were abusive.
S Jayanthi, a nurse in the Kannagi Nagar primary health centre, flags cases of domestic violence in the locality. "We saw a lot of women coming here because of domestic violence during the lockdown. But, I can’t say it was an increase because such cases are always reported here," she adds.
Women also take on more of the stress of repaying loans, says Isabelle Guerin, an associate researcher at the French Institute in Puducherry. "And, the informal sector does not get paid in wages mandated by the government; women in the sector tend to be more vulnerable," says Isabelle.
Uncertainties ahead?
Many vendors fear future lockdowns and uncertainties they might bring. Uma Maheshwari, a flower seller in Kannagi Nagar, says, "We don't know what's happening. Milk prices and petrol prices are rising. We are just managing to get by. I have no idea what will happen if another COVID-19 wave hits us."
Dr Rangaswamy says people need to be armed with coping strategies and information about where to reach out for help.
"We recommend that, once the terrible time passes and people settle into a more normal routine, then you talk to them about mental health," she says.
According to Krishandas, most people are not equipped to seek help and do not vocalise their distress, especially with mental health. This could be remedied with de-stigmatizing the act of reaching out for help, she says.
AnanthPur says it is crucial to take care of our mental health, “Our economy is dependent on healthy individuals. That scarring isn't going to go away easily.”
This is part 2 of a series on debts taken during the pandemic under the Narender-Revelli fellowship jointly conducted by the Turaga Foundation and the University of Hyderabad.