In the past two weeks, the state bore witness to five mass suicides in which seven kids lost their lives.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2014, 22 mass suicides were reported in Kerala and this involved children. We are not discussing the loss of lives due to suicides because it has failed to impinge us as a social malady.
When considering loss of lives of children, we need to understand that kids do not decide to die and are in fact killed by their parents. So this must be considered as a serious crime. However, even if parents escape a suicide bid after the children get killed, many sympathise with them and the police and the legal system are reluctant to bring them to book. Rather than focussing on mass suicides, it is better to take steps to avoid them.
Studies show that suicides are often preceded by hints offered by those who plan to die. If these hints are taken into consideration, most suicides can be avoided. At least those who get a hint must call suicide prevention cells to prevent people from committing suicides.
In Kerala, there are four situations in which kids lose their lives in mass suicides: financial problems, non-curable diseases, mental disorder of parents, legal issues that could keep children away from one parent.
We do not have a strong child protection law that can take care of kids separated from problematic parents. While such systems are well-entrenched in foreign nations, we woefully lack it. Whenever issues are spotted, kids should be separated from their parents and rehabilitated. Unless this happens, we would continue to lose sleep over certain mishaps of this type in future.