Chennai, Sep 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) A humanitarian project to support suicide victims in Tamil Nadu, has found instances of misreporting of the cause of suicide, leading to erroneous reports that online rummy as reason of suicide.
The sensational suicides of Kalimuthu, a constable of the Coimbatore armed city force, and Nagarajan, a painting contractor in Chennai, attributed to online rummy has been found by the Rotary Rainbow project to be linked to debt trap.
These inaccurate reports around "suicide" linked to "online rummy" has become a political hot potato in Tamil Nadu with political parties and social activists urging the government to ban online rummy.
The Rotary Rainbow Project of Rotary International District 3232 & 3201, is an initiative to support the kin of suicide victims in Tamil Nadu, has been closely working with the families of suicide victims.
Their findings echo with that of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2021 report that lists bankruptcy among the top reasons for suicide along with addiction, marriage and love related issues and unemployment.
In July, it was reported that Kalimuthu, a constable of the Coimbatore armed city force, who took his own life due to his addiction to online rummy.
The immediate family told Rotary Rainbow Project that the burden of the debt trap is the real reason for the suicide and not playing rummy or online games. Similarly, it was reported in June, 2022, that Nagarajan, a painting contractor took his own life, because he was addicted to online rummy.
The victim's family has also said that Nagarajan had to take this extreme step as he got caught in a debt trap. They also confirmed that his death had nothing to do with online rummy, as wrongly reported. The Rotary Rainbow project has been supporting the families of both the deceased victims.
"The greatest gift of life is life itself. One of the most important ways to prevent suicide rates from growing is to recognise the real cause of these deaths and work towards finding a sustainable way of preventing them. Giving all suicide a singular misleading label will do a great disservice to humanity and to the victim's families," said P.P. Sridhar of the Rotary Club of Chennai Infocity
Tamil Nadu has historically among the highest suicide rates in India. NCRB data on suicides available since 1966 have consistently ranked Tamil Nadu among the top two or three states in suicide deaths.
A 2003 research reporting by A. Joseph, said that Tamil Nadu has reported suicide rates that are up to nine times the reported national average.
A 2009 research study in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry said "Studies from rural Tamil Nadu have reported the highest suicide rates in the world".
A 2017 report on suicide prevention in Tamil Nadu under the supervision of Dr. Alex Cohen said that as World Health Organization data of 2015, the state has higher official suicide rate than every country in the world.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz