Wave of suicides engulfs Indian village

(Editor’s Note: I’m so angry about this story- people shouldn’t be suffering like this and if pesticides are to blame- the companies who make the poison certainly shouldn’t be getting away with this. Our hearts go out to the families that have lost loved ones.)
A tiny village in central India, Badj in Khargone district, has recently seen a previously unheard of spike in suicides since the beginning of the year. While locals are blaming the 80 suicides on demon spirits, some researchers believe pesticides could be behind widespread depression. In Badj, there are 320 families and each of them has lost at least one family member to suicide. Even the new head of the village has been affected as his cousin (the pervious village head) recently hanged himself from a tree in front of his house- and his mother and brother also committed suicide. Until 2016, the last two decades had only seen a total of 350 suicides in this village of 2,500 people.

From the article at RT:

“The Times of India interviewed psychiatrist Dr Srikanth Reddy, who said that the suicides are likely caused by depression and schizophrenic episodes, which could be triggered by excessive use of pesticides when farming.

In a study some years ago in China, where a large number of farmers in a particular area were committing suicide, it was found that insecticides used there contained organophosphate, which is highly toxic and causes depressive mental conditions.”

Villagers have been proactive about trying to end the rash of suicides, they’ve even banned alcohol as a preventative measure, but village members are simply going to neighboring villages to get drinks. Khargone is one of India’s 250 most backwards and poor districts..

And sadly, its not just happening in India- there is a similar problem affecting Canada’s First Nation community of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario. Their community has seen a spike in suicides as well, with 100 attempts since September- the youngest resident who tried to attempt suicide was just 11 years old.

We hope that someone can get to the bottom of this soon. This kind of madness must stop. Again, our hearts go out to all the families involved.

Source: RT