NEW DELHI: Men continue to silently suffer from mental illness more than women in the national capital, as suicide data shows a major gap in number of deaths between the genders. Psychiatrists claim that social stigma plays a major role that pushes men to hide their mental illness.
“Though women globally have the tendency to attempt more suicides, however number of men is more when it comes to taking the final step. Male are considered to be the head of the family, sole bread earner and hence are burdened up with taking responsibilty of the household.
If a man gets emotional, he is considered to be weak in the eyes of the society. Their mental illness remains unidentified and they have no access to proper medical treatments. Men often get socially disintegrated. And therefore suicides should be considered as a cry for help,” said professor of psychiatry department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr Rajesh Sagar.
A recent RTI reply by the Delhi Police revealed that there is a huge disparity in the number suicides between men and women. The data accessed by the correspondent of over the past three years showed that the gap between both the genders is more than 100 per cent in terms of suicide deaths.
As per the data, in 2020, while 700 women died by suicide, the figure for men was 131 per cent more, having 1,622 deaths. In 2019, 106 per cent more men died by suicide than women while in 2018, the gap was 116 per cent.
Experts also believe that the pandemic and the lockdown will lead to more disparity in the suicide data in the coming days. “A lot of men, especially migrants and labourers have suffered from financial or economic losses in these two years. They are most likely to sleep into depression and with lack of access to counselling, are prone to end up taking their own life.
Many who were already suffering from depression or mental illness, failed to get access to proper healthcare and counselling due to lockdown,” said Dr Manish Kandpal, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend, or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)