LIFE INTERRUPTED: UNDERSTANDING INDIA'S SUICIDE CRISIS, AMRITA TRIPATHI, DR.ABHIJIT NADKARNI, DR.SOUMITRA PATHARE

In India we tend to have a fatalistic attitude towards suicide, tending to believe that nothing can be done to prevent it, focusing only on the politically volatile issue of farmer suicides, or periodically, when there is a death by suicide of a prominent personality or suicides in vulnerable groups (for example, students especially after board exam results), there is a hue and cry in the popular press with opinion makers demanding immediate action.

The resulting knee-jerk reaction from policy makers is to offer some immediate solutions (appointing counsellors in colleges, etc.) which have little evidence of success. After a while, everyone forgets the issue, until the next such event and the cycle repeats itself.