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Globalisation of Pesticide Ingestion in Suicides: An Overview from a Deltaic Region of a Middle-Income Nation, India

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The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health

Abstract

In many countries globally, intentional self-injury has become a frequent reaction to emotional distress, particularly among young adults. In high-income countries, the substances ingested are analgesics, antidepressants and sedatives, all of which are relatively harmless. However, the scenario is quite different in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially in rural areas where agricultural pesticides are used to attempt self-harm. All across the world countries have accrued tremendous benefits from pesticide use. Pesticides have enhanced agricultural production dramatically in most countries thereby ensuring food for the increasing population. They have been instrumental in effectively controlling vector-borne diseases. In the 1950s and 1960s there was much glorification about the advantages of pesticides in reducing world hunger, increasing crop productivity, controlling pest infestation and crop damage and so on. However, recent evidence suggests that pesticides have considerable deleterious impact on the environment and human health. Moreover, accidental poisoning and pesticide-related self-harm/suicide is emerging as a grave public health issue in several nations, particularly in LMICs. The present chapter aims to highlight the issue of easy availability of pesticides in an agrarian region in India, the aggressive marketing by pesticide companies, the limited role of the local administration in the sale of pesticides, and specific sociocultural contexts such as dowry and domestic violence, in which pesticides are consumed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The custom of dowry in Indian marriages is a deep-seated cultural phenomenon. India’s Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 defines a ‘dowry’ as ‘any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage to the other party, or by the parents of either party to a marriage’ (Ministry of Women and Child Development 1961, p. 5). As a cultural practice the dowry system propagates domination, torture and killings of women (Adegoke and Oladegi 2008). Despite laws prohibiting the practice, there has been little change in India. In the last three decades, brutality against women in the name of dowry seems to have risen. Social activists, sociologists and cultural anthropologists have indicated that the dowry system has serious implications for women in India in the sense that it advances discrimination against the female child in the form of infanticide and sex-selective abortions (Das Gupta and Bhat 1997). In the context of dowry and son-preference, female children are believed to be an economic liability and are subjected to differential treatment with regard to food, shelter and educational opportunities (Arnold 1992). Violence towards a bride which results in her death is called a “dowry death” or “dowry murder” (Rudd 2001). A suicide committed by a bride who is mentally and/or physically pressurised to pay dowry is also classified as a dowry death. The first national law was The Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961. Following this law, the Dowry Prohibition Amendment Act of 1984, the Criminal Law Act of 1983 and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 are laws in India that aim to address the issue of dowry and protect women. However, a number of loopholes in each of the laws have rendered them largely ineffective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Sohini Banerjee

  2. Institute of Psychiatry, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Arabinda N. Chowdhury

  3. Cambridge & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Huntingdon, UK

    Arabinda N. Chowdhury

Authors
  1. Sohini Banerjee
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  2. Arabinda N. Chowdhury
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, Health and Society University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Ross G. White

  2. School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Sumeet Jain

  3. Department of Social Work and Social Care, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    David M.R. Orr

  4. CERMES3, Paris, France

    Ursula M. Read

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Banerjee, S., Chowdhury, A.N. (2017). Globalisation of Pesticide Ingestion in Suicides: An Overview from a Deltaic Region of a Middle-Income Nation, India. In: White, R., Jain, S., Orr, D., Read, U. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39510-8_32

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