Dear Editor,

IN response to a column by Freddie Kissoon, Dr. Vishnu Bisram agreed that Indians live fearful lives. While the facts and reality do not support that assertion, I leave that for another time, as my focus now/here is on the myth that Indians, globally, have the highest suicide rate, and that in Guyana, this is a runaway rate.
The only two nations with Indians among the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) top 10 nations re: suicide rates over the years have been Guyana and Suriname. Others include nations from Europe, Asia and Africa. This fact speaks for itself.

With respect to Guyana, it is true that at one point, 80 per cent of suicides in Guyana were from the Indo-Guyanese population, but that is not so today. Over the last two decades or so, suicide has become a national problem, as the issues that drive suicide cut across all ethno-cultural and age groups are not unique to the Indo-Guyanese population. Besides, empirical and anecdotal evidence indicate that the highest suicide rate is within the Amerindian community, and while the suicide rate has been falling within the Indo-Guyanese population, it has been rising in other groups. As Dr. Bisram himself pointed out in a December 10, 2015 letter to Stabroek News, “The fact is that while Indians in Guyana do have the highest suicide rate, it has been decreasing from a high of about eight in 10 a few decades ago, to about six in 10 currently.” In fact, Dr. Bisram should revisit this 2015 letter, as it contradicts his positions on suicide in his recent one.

Factors that drive suicide are similar globally, even though some may manifest in specific ways in different nations. For example, poverty is global, but the issues that arise differ from nation to nation. In India, for example, large number of farmers take their lives as a result of strangling debt; not so elsewhere. As the Guyana government’s National Mental Health Action Plan 2015-2020 points out, “Risk factors for mental illness in Guyana are related to environmental, lifestyles, biological and psychosocial factors, and include social class, gender, racial conflicts, housing, occupational risks, access to services, smoking, limited national policies, globalisation, macroeconomics, national politics, and urbanisation.” Ditto for every nation globally! Note… these are not cultural factors unique to any ethno-cultural group!

Incidentally, as The Caribbean Voice has pointed out over the years that rate of 44.2% in 2012 that led to Guyana being dubbed the nation with the highest rate globally was inaccurate. The WHO’s explanation for this figure was that they had factored in the generally unreported 25 per cent, which was not factored in for any other nation, and which is never factored in with respect to WHO’s tabulation of suicide rates. And an analysis of Guyana’s suicide rate both before and after 2012 shows 10+ percentage points less than the 2012 figure – a clear anomaly.
The fact is that under no circumstances would the suicide rate jump 10+ percentage points from one year to the next and then fall back 10+ percentage points the following year – not under war, not under large scale starvation, not under a pandemic!

Yours sincerely,

Annan Boodram