A student of BRAC University died after falling from the rooftop of her house in the capital’s Dakshinkhan area on Saturday. The deceased has been identified 21-year-old Sanjana, a third semester student of the university. Sanjana left a note before allegedly jumping off the 10th floor of the building. She blamed her father of being an abuser, and a rapist in the note.
Youth suicide is a perpetual dilemma in any form of societal structure. The reasons for suicide often lie on the characteristics of a country’s demography and societal structure.
Whatever the reason, each and every incident of youth suicide not only in Bangladesh but also across the globe unveils the collective failure of the respective societies to instil the importance of life into the sensitive psychology of interpretation of the youths.
The reasons for suicide are quite predictable. Depression, anxiety, marital problem, love-breakup and poverty are the common reasons for suicide in Bangladesh. We believe a large percentage of suicides are preventable if people get timely and adequate treatment for mental health disorders.
There are numerous complex factors
that contribute to a suicide, but what
is most important is that all of our actions
must be geared toward prevention
It is disheartening to note that despite experiencing an increasing number of youth suicides, the issue has been overlooked by the authorities concerned, society, parents and teachers in Bangladesh. We often write about the education system, we complain about the lack of qualified teachers in our schools. But we hardly emphasize youth suicide caused by the overwhelming characteristics of our education system.
Suicidal behavior has existed throughout human history, but due to several complex factors, it has increased gradually in all parts of the world and, in the past few decades, has reached alarming statistical levels. Suicide is a global public health problem that deserves the attention of all the actors in the field of mental health, including scientific and professional organizations, organizations for mental health users and their families, and universities. It deserves particular attention from national health authorities, since it is their responsibility to craft policies and directives aimed at establishing strategies to prevent suicide and promote public’s mental health.
The role of both print and audiovisual communication media and of social media is no less important, since their participation can have positive as well as negative effects, depending on how they address this subject. There are numerous complex factors that contribute to a suicide, but what is most important is that all of our actions must be geared toward prevention.
