Rising trends in suicides in Kashmir have to be looked necessarily through the mirror of increasing financial stress keeping in view the growing stress on livelihoods of people like hapless populations in the other parts of the country. As the cause of the death of a youth Shoaib Bashir in the latest suicide case is stated to be delay in the disbursement of the salary to his father- a school teacher by profession. While the causes of the delay in the disbursement of the salary of the father of Shoaib Bashir demand an independent investigation, the circumstances leading to the death of Soaib in suicide attempt also need to be investigated for the purposes of looking into other forms of stress also showing unprecedented rise in the recent years. Inability of Shoaib to pay his fee for master’s degree course prompting him to end his life shows that educational aspirations are dearer to youth more than their own lives. Like Shoiab thousands of youth may be caring more for their educational aspirations than their own lives and hundreds of Kashmiri youth giving up education in mid way due to financial constraints or domestic compulsions may be suffering from critical psychiatric ailments. Government won’t come to know about the no of such youth suffering from critical psychiatric ailments very easily but it will have to conduct a survey to know the facts and figures. Looking into such kinds of increasing frustrations among the youth in Kashmir and also a survey for knowing the trends of dropout rates in schools and colleges could be beginning of a process for the return of such youth to mainstream education in schools, colleges and universities. A close vigil over the youth tending to give up education in schools and colleges also has to be the priority of the government if the people at the helm are really concerned about the educational aspirations of the youth giving up education due to financial constraints.
While the announcement of 50% cut in Board and University examination fee could most probably reduce the intensity of the frustrating brewing up among youth in Kashmir, a special economic package for the business and trading communities to reverse the trend of laying off the staff and reducing the salary of employees to 50% would most also most likely restore the jobs of youth in private sector. Such measures once taken to reduce the intensity of the financial stress may consequently reduce the increasing trends of mental health issues observed by medical experts among the youth during last two years.
May be the cause of growing frustration among youth resulting in the unprecedented rise in suicide attempts is also the suspension of trading and business activities for almost last three years due to two prolonged covid lockdowns one this year and another one last year. So obviously there are two causes for the rise in suicide attempts, one is the growing frustration among youth due to their increasing concerns for educational careers and other is economic stress triggered by frequent lockdowns imposed for the purposes of containing the covid-19 pandemic? While the announcement of 50% cut in Board and University examination fee could most probably reduce the intensity of the frustrating brewing up among youth in Kashmir, a special economic package for the business and trading communities to reverse the trend of laying off the staff and reducing the salary of employees to 50% would most also most likely restore the jobs of youth in private sector. Such measures once taken to reduce the intensity of the financial stress may consequently reduce the increasing trends of mental health issues observed by medical experts among the youth during last two years.
