SOMETHING is gravely wrong in our society when children are taking their own lives. The most recent case involved a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide because her mother was unable to make it for her coming-of-age celebration.
Earlier this year, a Form Four student ended his life after a bout of depression due to bullying and alleged targeting by teachers over trivial matters.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019 found that 424,000 children in Malaysia are suffering from emotional and psychological issues.
With the largest segment of these children coming from the Bottom 40 (B40) income group, we can see the effects of economic stress on the psychological wellbeing of families who are from the urban poor group.
We need to look beyond our world of splendour, into the squalor that they may be in to understand the daily struggle they endure.
It is not for the lack of love or parenting skills that people in such dire situations are unable to provide fully for their children.
Child suicides also happen among more well-to-do families.
There are many emotional triggers of suicidal tendencies that are common to rich and poor families.
They range from intense sadness due to loss, anxiety, anger, hopelessness, physical or sexual abuse, traumatic events, social isolation to difficulties in dealing with sexual orientation.
We need to be mindful that 90% of people who have died by suicide were suffering from some form of mental illness. That is a red flag that has not been addressed sufficiently.
Children are born full of joy and hope, no matter what condition they are in.
It is only through the passage of time that they are burdened by the expectations and impositions of their parents.
They do not know fear until we make up monsters in their minds to control them. They do not know how to discriminate between the rich and the poor or identify by the colour of their skin and religion until their parents teach them.
Parents then impose their culture, ideas and morals on them. In no time, they lose their joy and learn to suffer self-imposed problems like adults.
It would be a grave injustice to suffering families to pin the blame for child suicides on them. However, parenting behaviour contribute greatly to such deaths. How fractured a family is plays a big part.
Beyond the family, there is little help for those on the brink. Government resources are needed to help fund the initiatives by non-governmental organisations in addressing this epidemic of suicides.
A young life lost in such circumstances is a tragedy for the family, society and the nation.
Read the story on our iPaper: A tragedy for the family, society and the nation
