Understanding the Suicide Risk in Indian Society: An Anomic Approach

Abstract

Human society in the 21st century, along with development and progress, is also confronting numerous social problems, one of which is the problem of suicide, which is assuming the shape of a daunting problem. The death of a person caused by suicide is a matter of grave concern across all Indian states in contemporary times. Today, a lot of people are dying themselves by suicide due to stress, depression, and familial and social imbalance. The present study understands the nature of suicide in Indian society and examines the causes of suicide. The author has applied the phenomenological content analysis method. The information for the current research has been collected using news content from various Indian newspapers, magazines, and news portals through the phenomenological view. The researcher has collated 210 occurrences of suicide from newspapers in Uttar Pradesh between October 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021. The study has indicated that there is a substantial rise in suicide cases due to rapid changes in society resulting in anomic conditions. The effect of the anomic situation has also contributed to isolation and loneliness, which, in turn, leads to suicide in three ways personal anomie, familial anomie, and societal anomie. Moreover, the anomic situation has led to the various factors instrumental in suicide such as frustration, family problems, love affairs, poverty, harassment, sexual violence, social boycott, chronic diseases, and bankruptcy.