Monday, July 04, 2005

South Asian Violence!

VANCOUVER (AFP) - Young Indo-Canadian and South Asian deceased men dominate police files in Canada's westernmost province of British Columbia like no other ethnic groups.

And the province is setting up a special police task force following the deaths of 90 men in extreme gang violence since 1992.

Spokesman Shinder Kirk said 50 officers have joined the task force in recent weeks from the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police and municipal forces. By fall, it will be at full strength at 80 investigators.

The move came after a plea for help from community leaders, citing extreme concerns from local people over "what was happening in their community, involving their young men," according to Kirk.

The spokesman said there has been a major attitude shift from past practice of trying to avoid publicity to openly talking about the problem.

Balwant Singh Gill, president of an association of 36 Sikh temples in British Columbia, a leader in the fight against gang violence, said: "Its come to a point where its the responsibility of not only parents, but of police, teachers, councilors' and social workers."

Officially the task force will investigate any gangs, but Kirk said its first focus is Indo-Canadian and South Asian gangs.

Almost all the victims died in the metropolitan area around this major port city of Vancouver.

The Canadian government has also announced funding for a committee to study the causes of Indo-Canadian youth violence.

A typical case is that of Saranjit Gary Rai, who was 22 in 2001 when he was "shot to death, execution-style, by a single gunman in a hair salon," Vancouver police said.

Another is Robby Kandola, 31, "a well-known underworld figure in the Indo-Canadian community," who died in a 2002 drive-by shooting outside his highrise apartment in the upscale city centre, police said.

Solving the problem wont be simple. Big money can be made growing marijuana, smuggling it across the US border and bringing back cocaine and guns.

And there are many theories about why a disproportionate number of Indo-Canadians are involved. "One theory is the cultural issue, where sons are favoured more than daughters and allowed more freedom and get away with more," said Kirk.

"Then theres the nature of the culture, in which young people are expected to live in two worlds. Theres confusion. They ask, what am I, Canadian? Indian? Indo-Canadian?"

Some, however, deny the problem lies within the culture. After one young man was charged in a kidnapping in May, his prominent Sikh father blamed the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, accusing it of using young Indo-Canadians in organized crime.

A spokesperson for the biker gang dismissed the comment as "nonsense."

Political science professor Shinder Purewal said the ethnic gang members come from families in all social-economic brackets.

Gangs exist in all other cultures and cities, he said, but the extent of the murders among Indo-Canadians here is extreme. "Its really a unique phenomenon that these people are killing each other."

And while only a tiny percentage are in gangs, Purewal said, the sensational murders have given the entire community an "image problem."

Gill agreed. "Our reputation is being tarnished by the murders and violence."

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Kerala still needs JESUS!

Out of every three cases of suicide reported every 15 minutes inIndia, one is committed by a youth in the age group of 15 to 29.In the Union Territory of Pondicherry, every month at least 15 youthsbetween the ages of 15 and 25 commit suicide.In 2002, there were 10,982 suicides in Tamil Nadu, 11,300 in Kerala,10,934 in Karnataka, and 9,433 in Andhra Pradesh.In 2003, the largest number of farmers -- around 175 -- committedsuicide in Andhra Pradesh.Kerala, the country's first fully literate state, has the highestnumber of suicides. Some 32 people commit suicide in Kerala every day.These statistics are startling. Southern India is the country'sinformation technology hub. The southern region is competing withnorthern India to become the country's economic powerhouse.But south India has another distinction, one that it would rather nothave: the region accounts for the world's largest number of suicidesby young people, according to The Lancet, the respected Britishmedical journal.Some 50,000 people in the four states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Naduand Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Pondicherry killthemselves every year. This statistic becomes even more alarming whenyou consider that the total number of suicide cases recorded in thewhole of India in 2002 was 154,000.The Lancet has published an authoritative study on suicides insouthern India in its April edition. The study says the suicide ratesamong young men and women in southern India are the highest in theworld.The study conducted by the Vellore-based Christian Medical College onteenagers in Tamil Nadu, especially in the Vellore region, found thatthe average suicide rate for women is as high as 148 per 100,000, and58 per 100,000 for men.Worldwide, this rate is 14.5 per 100,000. Also, in the West, men arethree times more likely to commit suicide than women."This is just the tip of the iceberg," says Dr S K Vijayachandran,nodal officer for Kerala's district mental health programme. "It isnot youngsters alone. More people in the southern states belonging toevery walk of life are killing themselves than in other regions inIndia."For instance, the suicide rate in Kerala was about 32 per 100,000persons in 2002, thrice the rate in India as a whole. "This is a hugeproblem," Dr Vijayachandran says, "which requires urgentintervention."Experts like him put forward various reasons for the dismal state ofmental health among people in the South. Some of these reasons, whichmental health experts term 'acute stress factors,' include:Family conflicts, domestic violence, academic failures, andunfulfilled romantic ideals.Voracious appetite for high-end consumer goods spurred by moneylendersand hire-purchase schemes.The wide gap between people's aspirations and actual capabilities.The disintegration of traditional social support mechanisms as wasprevalent in joint families.Emergence of a trend towards nuclear families, alcohol abuse,financial instability and family dysfunction.A growing population of the aged.Failure of crops, huge debt burdens, growing costs of cultivation, andshrinking yield.Two years ago, the National Crime Records Bureau noted that out ofevery three cases of suicide reported every 15 minutes in the country,one involves a youth in the age group of 15 to 29. 'Youth andmiddle-aged (30 to 44 years) are the prime groups taking recourse tothe path of suicide. Of the total suicide victims, around 37.6 percent are youths in the age group of 15 to 29 years,' the Bureau saidin a report.Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which have much higherpopulations and far lower levels of literacy, report fewer suicides.In 2002, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for 4.8 percent and 1.7percent, respectively, of the total number of suicides in the country.But not everyone is convinced by these figures. "In northern Indianstates, there is low level of registration of suicide deaths in policestations," says Sunder Rajan, a retired Tamil Nadu police officer."Therefore, no figures about suicides in the country can be reliedupon for any scientific analysis of the problem."On its part, the National Crime Records Bureau has one main reason forthe increasing suicide rate in the country: 'Family problems.'Psychologist Mathew Kurien of the Southern Medical Centre, Bangalore,agrees. "In this modern age," Dr Kurien says, "children are notbrought up peacefully. They are under pressure to deliver at school;they are under pressure to appear for competitive examinations. Afterthey reach puberty, no one in the family gives them any advice aboutthe meaning of life."Dr Kurien's argument is borne out by the fact that every year, whenthe results of secondary and intermediate school examinations areannounced, counselling centres across the country are flooded withdistress calls from students. "I get hundreds of calls from studentswho are contemplating suicide because they could not achieve the goodscores expected by their parents," says Elizabeth Vadakkekara,co-ordinator at Thrani, a counselling centre in Thiruvananthapuram.Vadakkekara says the only way to make India, especially the southernregion, less suicide prone is "to make life easy." Of course, that iseasier said than done. A study conducted by the department of community health at theChristian Medical College, Vellore, made the alarming finding thatsuicide accounts for one-half to three-quarters of all deaths in youngwomen and a quarter of deaths in young men in southern India.Dr Anuradha Bose, associate professor in paediatrics who also worksfor the CMC's department of community health, was one of the membersof the group that conducted this study.In a telephone interview with Contributing Special CorrespondentShobha Warrier, Dr Bose discussed the impact of the study.What was the reason for conducting such a study?In the department of community health, data has been collected on aregular basis for the last 18 years or so on causes of death. We haveall this information available to us. We looked at the causes of deathin children between the ages of 1 and 10, and contrary to what weexpected, the single largest cause of death among them was drowning.It took us by surprise because we were under the impression that itwas infectious diseases like diarrhoea that caused most deaths.Was this study conducted all over India?No. The department of community health, CMC, works in the Kaniyambadiblock of Vellore district which has a population of one lakh. Thisvillage is situated right next to Vellore. We have information on alot of things in the block as the department has been working here formany years. In this block, the single largest cause of death amongchildren aged 1 to 10 was drowning.That made us wonder what the cause of death in the next higher agegroups, that is, 10 to 14 and 15 to 19, would be. We pulled out theinformation from our health information system. When we looked at thecauses of death in the age group 15 to 19 from 1992 to 2001, we foundthat suicide was the largest cause of death.Let me tell you about the words injury and accident. Accident impliesthat you can do nothing to prevent it. When you use the word injury,it is understood that you can do something to prevent it. Injury isclassified as unintentional injury and intentional injury. Intentionalinjury is suicide, homicide, and acts of war in any form. Everythingelse comes under unintentional injury.If you look at the causes of death in the age group 10 to 14,unintentional injury was the single largest cause of death. In the 15to 19 age group, intentional injury, that is, suicide was the largestcause of death.Did this also come as a shock to you?It did not come too much as a shock. But when we compared the figureselsewhere in the world, we were shocked to see that it was so muchhigher than what was reported elsewhere previously in India or inother countries; not just in high income countries, but even incountries like Sri Lanka.The rate for boys was 58 per 100,000, and for girls it was 150 per100,000. The rates are so high that if this happened with a disease,you would actually conclude that something has to be done immediately.Once you had this information, did you try to find out the reasons forthis high rate of suicide among girls in south India?My own thinking is that girls commit suicide more frequently becausethis is a manifestation of what we call the gender bias against thegirl child in Indian culture and Indian society. They are driven to itwhen families fight, or they fail in the exams, or if they cannotfulfil their love life, or sometimes when the girls feel they are afinancial burden. But our study did not exactly touch upon why thishappens... We do not know why they took suicide as an option.We are continuing our study, but we need a fairly large amount ofinformation before we can say anything with certainty.It was reported that a similar study found higher rates of suicideamong girls in China, Singapore, etc. But the situation is differentin the so-called developed countries. Has Asian culture got anythingto do with this?In most high-income countries, boys do not talk about suicide, butkill themselves more often. The methods they choose are such that theycannot be saved. On the other hand, girls may talk about killingthemselves more often, but usually the methods they choose are suchthat they can be saved.In India, they [suicidal girls] use hanging or take pesticide. In aremote village, if they take pesticide it is impossible to save them.The girls also burn themselves. In India, they use more effectivemethods.China and Singapore have reported higher suicide rates in women of aslightly older age group, but the rate is not as high as what we havein India. If it is 25 per 100,000 for men in China, it is 30 per100,000 for women. It is higher, but it is not as dramatically high asit is here. At the time the Chinese data was published, it took theworld by surprise because most of them thought men committed suicidemore often.It might have something to do with the Eastern culture. Definitely inour society, it is because there is so much bias against girls. Maybethe girls feel less in control of their lives.The results of the study are alarming...It is terribly sad. Every time there is a death, the health worker inthe village tells the story behind the death to us. It is written onthe back of the death report. Some of the stories are quite sad.One of the girls wanted to marry a boy who belonged to a differentsubsect from the same caste. But there was opposition from the family.So she killed herself.Have the rates increased over the years? Has society become more rigid?The rates are not going up. We looked at the data from 1992-2001.There was not much variation in the rates; it is almost the same. Wehaven't looked at earlier years though.Do you feel Indians as a race are more vulnerable or hypersensitive?I don't think we are racially any different in terms of our emotions.Obviously there is something in our culture that says suicide is anoption. But exactly what factor, we don't know.Why do you think the incidents of suicide are more in southern India?It is more here because I think it is properly monitored. We havehealth workers who live in the villages and they know what ishappening there. This kind of system is difficult to duplicate. Wehave an excellent system of surveillance.You mean, there won't be much difference between southern India andthe rest of India?I think so. I don't know that for a fact. I think if you could putthis kind of system in place, you may find similar high rateselsewhere in India. I don't know much about the culture in the North,I am afraid.Now that you have come out with such a finding, would you be lookingat educating society to prevent these incidents?Our department feels this is something that needs to be urgentlyaddressed. We have started family counselling work. It has been therefor a few years now. The department carries out what is called familylife education among high-school students. We talk to them about sex,relationships, etc, and we think that might help.We have made a small start. We are very much aware that we need to do much more.