The print and electronic media coverage of the schoolgirl’s tragic death in Kallakurichi, unceasing to date, gets one thinking. September 10 is observed every year as World Suicide Prevention Day. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately eight lakh people die of suicide every year in the world, out of which India’s share is about one lakh lives. The WHO has issued comprehensive guidelines to the media about reporting incidents of suicide.
Taking a cue from the WHO guidelines, the Press Council of India and the Suicide Prevention and Implementation Research Initiative (SPIRIT) have also issued SOPs. The primary mandate is to eschew sensationalism. Years of research led to these guidelines to prevent ‘simulated suicides’.
Unfortunately, the media has sacrificed these principles to gain traction and TRPs. Camouflaged as ‘public interest’, electronic media, particularly, has pandered to prurience in ideological food fights.
In the famed Aarushi Talwar murder case, the Supreme Court had to intervene in a scandalous media trial to usher in guidelines for the media to go by. Alas, they were complied with in the breach as the media went to trial despite the cautionary suggestion from Justice Satishkumar of Madras High Court. Imagination and speculation ran rife as scandalous imputations were peddled as facts. Debates and discussions abounded, with the media as the prosecutor, jury and judge, at the cost of truth and the rule of law.
Bizarre versions of the schoolgirl’s death were circulated on reckless social media, encouraging mischief-mongers to spread vile canards with impunity, unmindful of insidious effects on the psyche of society at large. And political parties joined in the cacophony.
Media influence was immediate and impactful. A ‘sympathetic’ crowd which assembled outside the school to ‘demand justice’, turned into a rudderless motley group indulging in the rampage of school property. It was tragic that the ‘school’ administration was pronounced guilty and instant punishment was meted out by damaging vehicles and other assets in the compound. The scholastic records of students were not immune to mob destruction. The rioters ran amok, despite a posse of police officers who remained mute witnesses.
Mob frenzy at its fanatic worst, all carried live to our drawing rooms, fuelling the animal spirits of the mobsters. The subdued response, or lack thereof, of the police officers posted at the place of the crime, was woefully pathetic. The saving grace was that it was not a working day, and no loss of lives of innocents was reported. In the aftermath, when the police, as if on an afterthought, swung into action to arrest scores of people allegedly involved in the intense violence, the vigilante media and the participants in the talk shows of various hues had free rein in ranting and conducting declamatory sessions on prime-time television, haranguing their ill-founded opinions on the basis of their ideological and baseless positions.
Whether antisocial elements had infiltrated the crowd on the day of violence or it was a mere rallying of the misguided youths would be known only after the completion of the criminal proceedings registered against the arrested persons. It was obvious to the independent and discerning that from the very day of the incident, a well-orchestrated campaign appeared to have been launched on electronic and social media platforms, planting stories of murky foul play in the death of the innocent girl. It was a pity that sanity got crushed in the bargain. The sentiments of the parents mourning the loss of their beloved were ruthlessly exploited by vested interests.
An act of suicide may result from one or multiple reasons that are complex, multifaceted, and truly unfathomable. Emotional turbulence and torment suffered by the individual hardly get revealed or manifested in their behaviour fully before the irretrievable decision is cruelly implemented. Incidence of suicide is on the increase among school and college students, and the most dominant of all reasons, inarguably, is peer pressure. Today, students are constantly subjected to competitive pressure to perform, to prepare them for the rat race and facilitate them to attain the so-called success in life. The impelling anxiety fundamentally stems from society. Then it becomes the duty of the parents to apply pressure on their children: further, the duty is passed on to the educational institutions. Ultimately, the monstrous system inflicts pressure on the brittle students.
Students are not allowed to relax and are not allowed to lead a normal upbringing or enjoy their studenthood, either by parents or the school/college management. The collective mindset of society is oriented entirely towards success in material terms. In the bargain, the academic achievers are glorified as the only worthy examples of inspiration to be followed by all others who are forced to seek identity or recognition on that score. The great Albert Einstein presciently said, “This crippling of individuals, I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.”
From the observations of two learned judges of the Madras High Court in connected proceedings, it turns out that no foul play could be deduced from the postmortem/autopsy reports. The postmortem was done by experts picked by the court, with due notice to the parents, who had certain misgivings about the choice of pathologists. What is regrettable is that the naysayers are still fairly unwilling to accept the findings of two justices of a constitutional court. They have nefarious designs, and that needs exposure. The parents have become sad pawns on the chessboard of those who have their moves to make.
Alas, for the parents, ‘the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained’. After all, the truth is that there is always a killer in every suicide. But quite ironically, the killer herein appears to be the society at large. The moral of the story is: Sensitive reporting of suicide incidents is part of the strategy towards preventing suicides. It is time for media moguls in print, electronic, and social media to introspect whether the reportage on the girl’s death was equally tragic.
Justice V Parthiban (Retd)
Retired Judge, Madras High Court