The Unheard Pandemic

December 2019, the world has been hit by the worst pandemic which not only took a toll on the lives of many, but also on the economies of different countries. On one hand the pandemic was considered to be a bane for the corporates, the growing economic and world confluences and on the other hand it was being considered to be a boon at the wake of the global climatic problems that were taking the worst of turns. It was considered a vengeance by nature to recuperate itself and also a subtle way of bridging the distance that human beings have created amongst themselves with the new lifestyles and with the growth of technology. This was all very much of a positivist approach to the pandemic because though this pandemic was thought to bring people closer and to connect them it was forgotten that there was another pandemic at large. This has been with us since times immemorial, which in fact has lead us to our fates of living loveless and lonely lives with more and more technological integration.

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People were under lockdown in their houses with their loved ones and this should have lowered the suicide rates, or the rate of abuses or crimes against women, transgender and the entire spectra of the LGBTQKHI+. The result that was received was on the contrary. There is a considerable increase in the suicide rate in the world during this pandemic. According to an American article there can be a 32% rise in the suicide rate in the state of Michigan alone (https://loudwire.com/suicide-rates-could-increase-covid-19-how-seek-help/). Spending luxury time with their family is a luxury that not everyone can enjoy. People are being restricted to their homes, where they are either in a toxic relationship with their parents or their relationships with their parents are way beyond repair. People found peace in their outer worlds and some even found safe spaces away from the hate that their families produced. Transgender or a community person who was not accepted by their families had found their peace in their outer associations. People had started new lives away from known surroundings or families which were helping them recuperate. The tortures against Transgender people were not unknown to us, we have come across cases were even parents have tried killing their children because they couldn’t accept them the way they are. This pandemic gave an open license with closed homes for these parents to “rectify” their children. This increased the already increasing number of suicides among transgender and people belonging from the LGBTQKHI+ communities. The women who had found solace in their outside world from their abusive in laws or husband have been restricted to the premises of those households. The torture that they previously went through only on weekends have become a daily affair. This has also given rise to a considerable amount of suicide especially in the Asian third world countries. Children from broken families would generally tend to find their mental peace while they were at school or with their friends. The closure of schools have pushed a lot of children with toxic family culture towards the edge and often times we don’t even understand that the child is subtly being pushed towards self-harm bit by bit.

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Suicide has become a very serious pandemic that we have been living with for a long time now. If very closely analysed it can be seen that suicide claims more life in a year than any other accidents or even diseases for that matter. Explaining suicides using Durkheim’s understanding of suicide as social construct is something that can be very easily done because alienation with the growing age of technology is not a difficult fact to grasp, yet what is difficult is that the growing alienation from families, friends, the basic structures of the society. This brings us to a lot of questions such as the underlying dynamic of hate created due to the lack of homogeneity amongst people, or towards some particular religion, race or culture. Suicides cannot just be dealt with humanistic approach towards the people suffering from depression but also it should be understood that it arises out of judgements, hate, alienation, public trials and many others. There are a lot of structures that can be put to question with the growing rate of suicides but the very first that needs to put under analysing screens is the alienation from family which is supposed to be that basic unit of a society. We should deal with this pandemic on a very serious note with more and more conversations being held about mental health. People should become more vocal about the atrocities that a person faces under the garb of “Family matters”. There should be more stringent policies and laws against these issues. Conversations and debates should be held about the growing toxic culture between parents and children or partners or any abuse that a person faces. If this pandemic is not dealt with on an urgent basis there will be more lives to be claimed by any other pandemic. Start a conversation, Prioritise mental health.