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Depressed Life and Health

Writer: RRP Blog DeskRRP Blog Desk

Mental health is discussed religiously nowadays. Despite

this fact, people tend to attach stigma to mental illness

which makes mental health a field inaccessible to many

people, making them prone to various mental illnesses for

which they fear to seek therapy.


During the research study, one concrete observation was

found that one of the main reasons of farmer’s suicide in

Mansa district of Punjab was mental illness. The family

members of the case studies openly talked about the

reasons of suicide and the one that came out in majority

was “pareshaniyaan” which means tension or anxiety

leading to depression. In some cases this was genetically

inherited but majorly, depression in farmers was caused

due to inability to repay debt, the burden of daughter’s

marriage and in some extreme cases it was tied reasons

such as dowry that is the demand of dowry from

daughter’s in-laws.


Depression in the villages of Mansa is seen as a normal

baggage that the families of farmers have to carry with

them with other problems of life. They include the word

“pareshani” in their routine conversations, they know its

consequences but still are vulnerable to being caged in

mental illness due to lack of resources and the only easy

way out for them is suicide as quoted by family members

of the suicide victims . Each family had one or two

members who were taking medications for diverse mental

illnesses and this was not regular. They took medicines

only when they were able to buy it. Mental tension resulted

in alcoholism in many households.

Tahir Singh(70 years old), a landless agricultural labor

from village Kot Dharmu tells that he has to spend almost

two thousand per week to buy medicines for his wife who

is in mental trauma since their only son committed suicide

due to debts.

Gurmaan Singh(15 years old), from Khiala Kalan village is in

mental trauma since his father committed suicide when he was

only 4 years old. He studied only till 7 th grade after that he gad

to drop out due to health issues. Our Team tried to talk to

Gurmaan, In reply we got a hand wave and a smile. His mother

is trying her best to collect money for his treatment by doing

domestic labor.

This is not only about the lack of resources by families to seek

treatment but the deep-rooted malfunctioning of the hospitals


and health centers in the Mansa districts. The Survey Report

suggests that Doctors tend not to give proper information

about their medical condition and charge more in the name of

giving proper medicines for providing a faster relief.


By,

Ananay Koushal

 
 
 

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The Rural Research Programme was established in 2019 by a group of undergraduate students from

St. Stephen’s College, to overcome the limited scope for rural engagement within urban university spaces. Our primary area of work is to understand some of the issues which are being faced by the rural population of India by conducting appropriate surveys. The objective of the Rural Research Programme is to bridge the gap in awareness among urban students by creating opportunities for participating in the discourse surrounding rural and agrarian affairs through systematic research.

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