Father's Daughter, Husband's Wife, Son's Mother. Women in India and their Suicide Rate

"Our social norms are very regressive. In the village, a girl is called her father’s daughter, then she is her husband’s wife, and when she has a son, she is her son’s mother."



From 1990 to 2016, India's share of global suicide deaths among women increased from 25.3% to 36.6%. About two in five women who commit suicide worldwide are Indian turning suicide into the leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 39 years. The suicide rate is three times higher than a country with the given socio-economic indicators would have. The main reasons are believed to be early marriage, youth motherhood, low status in society, lack of (financial) independence, and male violence (via and via)

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- Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2016, download
- photograph of a contortionist with her puppy Sweety at the Great Raj Kamal Circus in Upleta, India, 1989, taken by Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015), via

57%

In the US, between 0.5% (via) and 4.6% of of the population report having made a suicide attempt. This is the general population. When it comes to gay, lesbian and bisexual adults, percentages range from 10 to 20%. Prevalence of lifetime suicide attempt is even more alarming among transgender individuals: On average, 41% of them have attempted to commit suicide. Percentages rise additionally if transgender individuals are younger (45%), male (46%), not hiding that they are transgender (50%), victimised at school (50-54%), discriminated against at work (50-59%), multiethnic (54%), American or Alaskan native (56%), living with a disability (55-65%), disrespected or harassed by law enforcement officers (57-61%), rejected (refers to treatment rejected) by doctors or health care providers (60%), subject to physical or sexual violence by law enforcement officers (60-70%), subject to physical or sexual violence at school (63-78%), subject to physcial or sexual violence at work (64-65%), living with a mental health condition (65%), or experiencing homelessness (69%) (Haas et al., 2014). Translating the last figures into words means that it is only a minority that does not attempt to commit suicide.



Family acceptance is strongly connected with positive outcomes while family rejection is connected with negative outcomes such as homelessness (three times higher), sex work (twice as high) and suicidality. These figures raise when domestic violence at the hands of a family member is added: four times the rate of homelessness, four times the rate of sex work, double the HIV rate and double the rate of suicide attempts (Grant et al., 2011).
According to the findings mentioned before, 57% of those whose families chose not to speak or spend time with them had attempted to put an end to their lives (Haas et al., 2014). On 28 December 2014, Leelah Alcorn, a teenager of 17 years who was born Joshua Ryan Alcorn, walked on the Interstate 71 in Ohio at 2.30 at night and was hit by a lorry. Before, she had scheduled her "Suicide Note" on Tumblr to be published at 5.30 p.m. In this note, she described her dilemma, her isolation, what if felt like to be rejected by her family, to hate oneself, and not to see a way out. Her suicide note attracted 82.271 views within 48 hours and by 31 December was reposted on Tumblr 200.000 times (via). Shortly after it was published, a great many people started sharing their stories with the #RealLiveTransAdult hashtag (e.g. "If you're a trans teen and you can't imagine your life going forward, I'm 39, I'm a professor and blogger, and I'm happy") trying to tell transgender teenagers that they made it although it was difficult (via). Since her mother continued misgendering Leelah, a petition with 80.000 signatures called for her chosen name to be used on her tombstone in order to respect her wishes (via). The facebook group "Justice for Leelah Alcorn" was established, the Transgender Human Rights Institute started the petition "Leelah's Law" to ban conversion therapy and had around 300.000 signatures by 8 January, a candlelight vigil took place in New York City, another one in London, marches were carried out in Washington, D.C. and Auckland. According to "The Independent", her death "triggered widespread anguish and raised a debate about the rights of transgender people". The "Boston Globe" stated that the incident "served as a flashpoint for transgender progress in 2014." (via).

(...) My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. (...) Fix society. Please." (via)

- Grant, J. M., Mottet, L. A., Tanis, J., Harrison, J., Herman, J. L. & Keisling, M. (2011) Injustice at Every Turn. A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
- Haas, A. P., Rodgers, P. L. & Herman, J. L. (2014) Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults. Findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. (via)
- photograph "Hats in the Garment District, New York" taken in 1930 by Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) via, photograph "Commuters" taken by Gordon Parks (1912-2006) in 1946 via

World Suicide Prevention Day

According to the International Association for Suicide Prevention, every year, more than 800.000 people die from suicide, statistically one death every 40 seconds. In 2012, suicide was the 15th leading cause of death, among those aged 30 to 49 it was cause number five and among those aged 15 to 29 it was cause number two (via).



Suicide is complex. Reasons, their combinations and what finally triggers this very last step vary. Apart from well-researched psychological predispositions, socio-cultural factors - such as postcolonialism - also need to be understood ... like in the case of the Kaiowá. The Kaiowá are part of the Guarani indigenous population. Most of them live in Brazil, in a territory that has been occupied by more and more non-Indians, a territory more and more Kaiowá had to leave. Many were transferred to reservations, those who stayed lived under changing circumstances which affected their traditional forms of organisation, housing conditions, work possibilities, their social and religious life.



The reason why the Kaiowá caught attention was – and still is - the high suicide rate. Since 1986, suicide rates are high among the young population and this development is still going on. The anthropologist Georg Grümberg coined the expression "the Kaiowá sequence suicide" identifying the following four causes: 1) lack of living space and loss of self determination, 2) lack of prospects, the experience of void rather than a future, 3) the idea that the person who commits suicide is actually a hero, someone who captures a new reality and creates a new situation, 4) the social instability created by Christian missionaries, who have prevented people from negotiating their conflicts in traditional ways. According to Grümberg, suicide occurs in three out of four communities under Christian power. In the given context, suicide is one way to react to the social situation. Suicide becomes part of identity formation. Just as indigenous identity is deconstructed, suicide deconstructs identity (Rothstein, 2008).



Suicide, here, is the action and reaction of a traumatised people that traditionally moved from one place to another searching for the "Land without Evil". The quest for the "Land without Evil" led to migration movements back in the 19th century. Migration was a crucial part of Guarani culture. Colonialisation took the space necessary for migration, for motion and autonomy. In the case of the Kaiowá, high suicide rates are regarded as a post-colonial phenomenon, as a postcolonial legacy. According to Bornschier's hypothesis, "social motionlessness" and collective impassivity enhance suicide. While suicide rates decrease in societies in which collective protests and violence increase, suicide rates are particularly high in societies that do not respond to paradoxes with collective action. In other words, if - due to social conditions - individuals see themselves forced to solve their problems individually, the tendency towards suicide rises. During phases of "social motionlessness", suicide is an expression of individual conflict solving (Furrer & Widmer, 1997). It is complex.



- Furrer, S. & Widmer, R. (1997) Aspekte suizidaler Handlungen in den westlichen Gesellschaften. via
- Rothstein, M. (2008) Individual Drawings and Collective Representations. Perceptions of Death Mong Kiowá Youth. anpere.net, 1-21
- photos of Robin Williams (1974) via