News: perception and reality...

Three headlines of the last week:

1. Two inmates commit suicide inside Tihar jail.

    Message: condition of inmates inside a prestigious jail

2. Two students commit suicide in Hyderabad during the protests against Telengana.

    Message: anger against the making of a new state by central Govt.

3. An ex-constable of paramilitary force trying to commit suicide in Delhi arrested

    Message: paramilitary soldier’s plight and the quick police action

On the surface, these headlines conveyed different messages, as conveyed by the media or understood by the public.

Is it really so?

Let’s look at each of them closely.

First one, the suicide inside the jail, doesn’t concern most of us, as it is about those who have been punished by the law. They deserve it, we can say.

Does it matter if a criminal lives or dies?

Even if the crime is not fully proved, being inside the jail is sufficient to label a person.  We never distinguish between a crime and the criminal. And we are not interested why the criminal did it?

Should we bother?

Is the criminal a human being first? Does he need support to vent out his feelings? Of maybe guilt, or loneliness inside the prison cell, or the anger against the system, or the stress of what will happen to him in the future, and so on.

What if the criminal gets a chance to reform?  -To lead a normal life… so that the crime rate will eventually go down…

Or maybe the person, before doing the crime, has an emotional support system available so that he or she can release the choked feelings, and perhaps think more rationally…?

Second news, of students’ suicide, connects immediately with the people divided clearly between the favour and against of formation of a new state. How an agitation can go to such extreme?  

And the suicides could not stop the Govt to pass the Telengana bill.

Amid all the politics, nobody thought about the students who ended their lives openly.

Were those students so stressed that they had no other option left?

Did they have proper support system to vent out their choked feelings?

Did they really want to die? Or was it their call for help?

Were they able to share their suppressed feelings with somebody around?

     

What if they had someone to unlock their anger and channelize their energy for a better tomorrow?

Third headline, the suicide attempt by a paramilitary constable, got chewed with a little amusement.  A drama played out in public place and quick response by usually inefficient policemen saved a life.

Nobody asked why a depressed person was sent to the prison.

Because, the law is like that only. Trying to commit suicide is punishable under Indian Penal Code.

The constable, in news, had served in Border Security Force.

Are we insensitive enough not to bother about a soldier?  

Did he have sufficient support to vent out his emotions?

What if he had someone to share his agony and lead him to proper medical care if required?

Do our military and paramilitary forces have a proper emotional support mechanism in place for such a soldier?

To protect our national borders can have at times a toll on the emotional health of the soldier. Who is there for him in such a difficult times?

So,

Underneath, all the above three are about the absence of a suitable support system for the stressed souls.

As a human being, are we ready to provide such a care to anybody in need?