C Sainath

Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, SVS Medical College, Mahaboonagar, Telangana, INDIA.

Email: papillonsainadh@gmail.com

 RESULTS

Table 1. Socio-demographic profile of the subjects

In the present study, out of the 138 cases, 98.5% were males, while 1.5% were females. Age wise distribution of the cases showed that maximum number (38.4%) of cases are found in the age group of 31-40 years, while 23.1%, were in the age group 41-50 years (Table 1). In this study maximum cases were married which constitute 97.8%, while 2.2% were unmarried. The place of death was also observed in the present study, which shows 56.5% of cases death was in open fields and 38.4% cases deaths happened at home and small percentage of deaths were observed in wells and ponds (Table 1).

Table 2: Distribution of cases according to Mode of death

In the present study, the modes of death in individuals were as follows. Out of 138 cases 63 individuals (45.6%) had committed suicide by hanging and 41.3% of individuals had consumed organophosphorus compounds. 5.0% were died by burns and drowning and 2.8% were died due to electric shock (Table 2). None of committers in the present study sample had resorted to violent means such as stabbing of body parts, jumping in front of railway, or oncoming vehicles or using firearms.

Figure 1: Distribution of cases according to cause of death

In the present study, the prominent reasons for committing suicides includes, maximum number of cases were due to economic status (84%) and 73% of deaths are due to indebt and followed by 26% of cases were due to drought conditions, 18% were due to capital inputs on the crops and 11% of deaths were due to various reasons like Monsoon Failure Climate change, Cash Crops, Minimum Supportive Price, New Economic Policy, and Alcohol (Figure 1).

Table 3: Period of Survival depending on Hospital Admissions

Seventy five (54.6%), cases died within 0-6 hrs, 20% of the cases survived up to 12hrs and 15.9% of cases survived up to 24hrs. it was also observed that 3.6% of cases survived more than 7 days from the day of admission in the hospital (Table 3).

DISCUSSION

Suicide as the leading cause of death in framers is due to by not giving adequately high priority to agriculture and that is responsible for most of the problems to farmers. The present study was aimed to explore the characteristics of people committed suicide, especially the socio demographical, modes used, and the reason for causes among the farmer population community in Vikarabad District, Telangana State, South India. We found a majority of the committed to be male and in the age group of 31–40 years and were married. Similar observation was seen in earlier studies were completed suicides are supposed to be more common among men while committed suicide is more common in women (8). Most other Indian studies on suicides as well as suicidal attempts have found an over-representation by those in their third and fourth decade  ⁹. As per the earlier studies, almost 66% of the suicide victims were married. Our study is also in accordance with earlier researchers which have shown that married individuals among those attempting or committing suicide than unmarried ¹⁰. The National Crime Records Bureau in its annual publication “Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India” in fact gives distribution of suicides by as many as 26 ‘causes’ and most of the framers attempt suicide with the things which are easily and occupationally available. Pesticide poisoning follows Hanging as the most common method of suicide ¹¹. The mode of death in individuals in the present study was maximally seen by hanging and organophosphorus compounds posioning. Studies from Asia have found poisoning and hanging to be the most commonly used methods ¹². Our study resembled most of the other Indian studies in that we found other modes of committed were by burns and drowning and due to electric shock. Earlier studies find the paradoxical situation of agricultural development that increased the incidences of farmer’s suicides in the state. Akkineni Bhavani Prasad ¹³ in a study of Andhra Pradesh found that farmers suicides in the state are closely related to the traditional policies adopted both by the Central and State Governments in general and that of the policies during the post reforms in particular. Public perception is that indebtedness and financial stressors brought about majorly by unpredictable weather conditions drive the Indian farmer to suicide. The families of the victims have reported money borrowed by the victims from various source of Credits like banks and Moneylenders. In our study, economic status and Indebtedness of farmers is found as the main reason for suicidal committed. Similar observation was studied by Ahlawat ¹⁴ investigated the socio-economic reasons of farmers suicides in Harayana. Satish and co-workers ¹⁵ in a study of Punjab depicted that the incidence of suicides in Punjab has not been higher than the all India average. The study revealed that the indebtedness is one of the major causes of suicides by farmers. The other factors of suicidal behaviour come hand in hand for taking lives of the farmers is due to various reasons like Monsoon Failure Climate change, Cash Crops, Minimum Supportive Price, New Economic Policy, and Alcohol our observations are in agreement with earlier studies ¹⁶. The major problem of our agriculture is inefficiency. Before liberalisation, our agriculture policies have not tried to make this sector competitive, Actually the driving factor is a ‘sense of loss’: repeated sense of hopelessness, loss of crops, loss of land, loss of income, loss of community, loss of family farm, loss of a way of life. The place of death of such depressed farmers was also observed in the present study, which shows maximum number of cases death was in open fields and followed by home and small percentage of deaths were observed in wells and ponds. Present study concludes that there are multiple reasons for a farmer to commit suicide. Our study shows that farmers belonging to this region committed suicide are majority were male, married, belonging to the age group of 31–40 years, and lower socioeconomic status. Hanging and Poisoning were the most common method, accounting for more than half of all attempts. Further large-scale assessments are required to further understand the situation.

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