Geographical analysis

Abstract

Suicide is one of the major causes of unnatural death worldwide. As per World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) statistics, about 800,000 people commit suicide every year and of these 135,000 are Indians. The suicidal rate in India is on its increasing trend for the past 20 years in which the suicidal cases from the southern Indian states are recorded chronically high. Among south Indian states, Kerala is noted for its declining trend of suicide recently. There are many factors for such decline among which the increasing trend of educational awareness is a dominant factor. The present research is based on assessment of educational awareness and its influence on suicide attempters in Kerala. The study is purely based on the suicide survivors who attempted to end up their life but due to on time medical availability, care and support from family members and society were able to come back to normal life. The snow ball sampling and questionnaire method were used to collect details regarding suicide attempters. The study reveals the fact that suicide is purely a psychological attempt to kill oneself and cannot be predicted at what age or at what time a person undergo this psychological phenomena. There are several measures that can be adopted to mentally and physically treat a person and bring back to normal life among which education awareness in the form of school education, family education, religious education, social education and spiritual education is most effective one. The study further suggests that a person should not only be educated materialistically but also spiritually to understand the importance of life and his / her importance in a family, community and nation.

Keywords: Suicide; Education; Suicide rate; Kerala