Self inflicted deaths: another social ill creeping in Bhutan.

I am alarmed by the reports about suicide cases in our country that appeared in the media very recently. More so, I was horror struck to hear that 11-year old student hanged himself at his house and a seven-year old girl also hanged herself from a tree branch below her house. Yet again with in a span of two weeks another minor a 14-year old girl from the same school hanged herself in the toilet of her home.

One self-inflicted death a month is quite alarming!

A 15-year old boy killed himself by hanging in Trashiyangtse a couple of years ago.

In one of the BT story titled "A spate of suicides in the South" authored by Dekey Choden Gyeltshen, our country saw the highest number of self-inflicted deaths in 2008, the figure being 54.The title of her story tell us that the southern dzongkags reported more suicides: for that matter Samtse topped the list.

Doctors point out that depression is the main cause of suicides. Question again, what causes depression?

Stress due to modernization, family problem over properties and divorce are the causes of depression as stated by Dr. Chencho Dorji and psychiatric nurse Rinchen Pelzang in the Kuensel story
“Depressed? Yes, but more anxious ", authored by Sonam Pelden, Paro, that appeared in the Kuensel's issue of September 3, 2009.

Now another factor TV is also being pointed out by the experts. Multimedia today has reached nook and carny of our country and children of various ages are exposed unchecked by their parents.  Various types of material circulate around the people of the community. Latest pirated version of Bhutanese movies to Hollywood and Bollywood movies to Korean, Japanese and Hongkong movies to various types of pornographic movies you name what, are being easily accessed by any person within a family since each family own at least one cell phone which supports multimedia facilities.

Parents of Bhutanese children are least bothered about which movie and TV channel is for children of what age. Somehow movies of pornographic and violent in nature are being watched by children.

Our country’s unemployment rate was 4% in 2009 and has dropped to 2.1% in 2012. So we have still many unemployed people as of now. It is said that low unemployment contributes to happiness. We also have 23% of our population below the poverty line. Therefore, unemployment and poverty are certainly leading to depression which is a sign of unhappiness.

“According to a 2005 editorial, published in the British Medical Journal, research done in Mexico, Ghana, the U.S. and the U.K. show that people typically get richer during their lifetimes, but not happier. It is family, social and community networks that bring joy to one's life. " This is a scrap from the Kuensel story titled “World’s Happiest Places ", published on August 27, 2009. This makes us believe that family, social and community networks are must for one's happiness. So, shall we assume that increasing case of suicides in our country shows somehow that our much praised “family, social and community networks ", are crumbling?

Congratulations!! “Bhutan’s internal migration rate highest in South Asia”, (Title of one of the Kuensel headlines in the issue of October 22, 2009). This is how the family, social and community disintegrate!

Look at this, senior citizens and disabled people left on their own in our streets. This too is an example of disintegration of family ties.

Look at the increasing number of domestic violence reported in the media. Many might have gone unreported. Collectively, reported and unreported cases of domestic violence surely lead to suicides at many instances.
Media also enlightened us by reporting cases of child labor and child abuse, teenage -pregnancy and many rape cases of late. Let us imagine the state of mind of these unfortunate and helpless victims. Don't these lead to depression?

What can we do?

With only two psychiatrists and five psychiatrists nurses in Thimphu it is an arduous job for them. On top of that the national referral hospital does not have many professionals to form a core team to effectively deal with mental illness in Thimphu hospital. It is obvious that rest of our hospital has got none.

A comprehensive study has to be done on mental disorders in Bhutan, so as to get a clear picture of what actually is leading people to commit suicides and what can be done to prevent it.

Although it is known that measures are being proposed and implemented by government to check and deal with unemployment and rural-urban migration, the government needs to rethink and act with more urgency.

One of the consequences of delay in the implementation of proposed planned activities is rural-urban migration. What can we do to stop all these?

Media: Instead of concluding their stories by “Police ruled out foul play " they can probe a little further to find out what actually made the victim do that.

“Full time counselor for every major school ", (Title of a story in the Kuensel issue of August 15, 2009) is a step by MoE that's much desired.

Rehabilitation, education and awareness programs nationwide at the earliest are what I feel we need now.

The government must do the needful promptly to the people who wish to form CSOs.

Religion can help find some answers to the problem. Look at the people in queue whenever HH the Je Khenpo travels. This shows our faith on them. People from all walks of life listen to them. Therefore, religious personalities can talk about this issue while they preach.

Policy on use of multimedia must be framed and sensitized to all the people in the country.

A citizen, however productive he or she may be but if mentally ill is finished.

 

Human-Wildlife Conflict, it is real! (An unusual appeal: a story)

“Please, give us nothing but only a tiger if you can if not a leopard,” was an appeal of a peasant from a remote hamlet of Bhutan to his visiting MP.

That MP was quite taken aback by such an unusual appeal. At one point, the MP thought that the man was insane and wanted to laugh but nobody was laughing in the gathering. The MP went dumb founded when the whole people of the hamlet unanimously repeated the appeal. “As of now we need no developments in any area but just a tiger if not a leopard by any means please,” pleaded the people in unison.

Stupefied MP, for a while did not know what to do or say. Hesitantly the MP began to speak after clearing his throat although it was already clear. “What actually you people mean by mentioning tiger or a leopard?”

After a deep sigh, an elderly man began to speak, “It is a very long and a sad story to narrate sir.”

“Once many years ago, the village was beautiful, peaceful, and prosperous. People were happy and the harvest every year was bountiful.  The domestic animals were many and helped the village people in many respect.

Bordering the village was a deep and beautiful jungle were many wild animals roamed happily. There was peace in the village and harmony in the jungle.

One fateful day a young man returned home from town with a monster machine called Power Chain. People gathered around the machine and asked the owner a string of questions. The man, for fun ignited the engine, which sent all the people running halter skater in terror. The man had a hearty laugh, called his village folk back after stopping the engine, and explained how it worked and what it did.

Soon people fell in love with the machine and began cutting down the great old trees in the jungle to construct their traditional house.

We never realized what we were doing until one day a teacher came to the village to educate our children.

The teacher was very worried by the way we exploited the jungle. The teacher told us that we have encroached upon the home of the wild. But we gave no heed and went on destroying the jungle.

One day a tiger came right into the middle of our village and killed the biggest bull. The people were so infuriated that they poisoned the tiger and celebrated the death of the big cat.

Soon the village began to face the leopards. The villagers killed the last one, a year ago in a trap.

Since then we are not in peace. We have to guard their crops day and night. Despite all the earnest efforts, we lost all our crops to the wild animals.

The human wild life conflict was so severe that we cursed our fate and resorted to so many prayers and rituals but to no avail.

During one of the teacher-parents meetings, the teacher of the village solved the puzzle we were faced with.

He explained that we have destroyed the home of the animals and slowly the animals went away or died. The tigers and leopards attacked the domestic animals because there was no food for them in the jungle. Killing the cats was the greatest mistake pointed out by the teacher. This according to the teacher had created an imbalance in the food chain.

The wild boar, deer, and monkey’s population dramatically increased hence the crop loss. There were no animals that could hunt and control the population of the boars and deer.”

The teacher opened the eyes of the villagers and they revered the teacher more than they revered their chief monk in the village. All the people realized their follies very well after the teacher explained how the nature worked.

The teacher talked about this predicament faced by the people while he was talking about one of the pillars of the Gross National Happiness: Conservation and Preservation of natural environment. Citing the real problems faced by the villagers the teacher highlighted the importance of preserving and conserving our natural environment.

After listening to the story, the MP was agitated and at the same time impressed with the wisdom of the teacher.  

Stroking his chin the Mp began to speak, “I fully understand your troubles and shall surely look into your problems and inform you what has to be done as soon as possible.”

The PM was never to be seen in the village again.

 

 

Captain abondons his ship!

I am profoundly shocked by the news of our former MP JYT’s resignation!

It is indeed a bombshell for an ordinary person like me who have been inspired by JYT. I do not know what and why actually JYT quit politics. As far as I know I have not seen such a terrific politician and a leader apart from our visionary kings in our country.

Indeed it is a great loss for the country since there are very few or not at all having the calibre equal to him in leadership. He has done so much for the country and still could have as a political leader.

I hope that even after his resignation he would part take ever actively in the nation building and guide us with his wisdom.

It makes me wonder as to what has made him to arrive at this audacious decision. I strongly believe that he has certainly done it for the larger interest of the King, Country and the People.

He is not only the citizen of our country but has become the citizen of the world.