According to psychiatrist Lakshmi Vijayakumar, a national strategy for suicide prevention is under discussion at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

The well-known psychiatrist added that the strategy should remove the confusion surrounding Article 309 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) according to which attempted suicide continues to be a criminal offence.

After the Mental Healthcare Act (MCHA), 2017, Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code has become “redundant” but it still remains in law books, said Dr Vijayakumar, who is also a member of WHO’s Network on Suicide Research & Prevention.

While the section says that attempt to commit suicide is punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend up to 1 year, section of 115 of the MCHA, 2017 states: “...any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress & shall not be tried & punished under the said Code (Section 309 of IPC ).”

Dr Vijayakumar speaking on the need to strike off the article said that the section makes attempted suicide a medico-legal case & the golden hour of providing effective treatment to the person who has attempted suicide is wasted. Hospitals & health institutions don't provide data on attempted suicide & as a result, there is no data on attempted suicide in the nation.

India tops the list
India, however, continues to have the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of suicides in the world, contributing to 34 per cent of all suicides, said Dr. Vijaykumar.

The nation has the highest rate of suicide among young women between 19-29 years. The National Crime Records Bureau recorded 1,33,623 suicides in 2015, she added.

Dr Vijaykumar was speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a panel discussion on ‘Decriminalization of Attempted Suicide: MCHA 2017 & the Ground Reality’ organized by the Indian Psychiatric Society in Kolkata earlier this week.

Speaking on the issue of the stigma related to suicide & attempted suicide, Subhangi Parkar, head of the department of Psychiatry & De-addiction, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, said that there is still lot of stigma related to suicides & survivors. “Suicide attempt survivors are often viewed as attention seekers… It is also a common myth that those who try to kill themselves are cowards,” she said.

Conviction rates
Surojit Purokayastha, former director-general of West Bengal & now State Security Advisor said that while the rate of conviction in usual crimes in which the police file chargesheets is around 10 per cent, in cases dealing with Section 309 of Indian Penal Code, the conviction is as high as 30 per cent because of the “clinching evidence” available in these cases.

Kishore Dutta, the State’s advocate general maintained that Section 309 of Indian Penal Code has been made ineffective but remains in law books. Mr. Dutta said that whenever a patient who has attempted suicide is taken to a hospital, the first duty of the hospital is to provide him or her medical intervention & then inform the police.

Dr. Vijayakumar said that the Section 309 of Indian Penal Code also puts a burden on the police for whom the only time this law comes to use is “when politicians go on a hunger strike", even as there are a plenty of other laws for such cases.

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