A DIGITAL survey conducted by Dawn on Pakistan`s disturbing suicide rates in 2020 was published recently by a renowned research journal. A peer-reviewed paper, published in Taylor & Francis, uses the survey results to assess attitudes towards suicide. It concludes, based on the survey`s findings, that mental illness tends to be recognised as a high likelihood contributor to suicide, and that most respondents consider suicide a way to `escape pain`. It found that barriers to seeking help included social taboos, inaccessibility, and unaffordability. Women and youth are higher risk groups, though the status of rural Pakistanis remained unclear, as many respondents were from urban areas. Death by suicide in Pakistan is seen as a taboo subject and therefore grossly underreported.

In the digital project, scores of respondents shared anonymously how they harboured suicidal thoughts or had lost a loved one to suicide. Of the 5,157 survey respondents, 38pc personally knew someone who has taken their own life. Around 9pc said they had tried to end their lives. These figures are astounding. Some data suggests that up to 35 people die by suicide in Pakistan every day, but owing to social taboos, poor record-keeping and the apathy of policymakers towards mental health issues, accurate data is scarce. The responses to the survey show a population crushed by social, financial and psychological burdens, with limited avenues of help. A suicide epidemiology expert, who saw the results, described them as a `window to the internal emotional struggles that so many Pakistanis are going through`.

The anonymous anecdotes from respondents show they are likely to hail from the middleto upper-middle class sections. `But reading about their struggles also gives us a clue what the not so well off in our society must be going through,` the expert noted.

Journalism in the public interest is critical, especially when it has an impact. While it is a matter of pride for this newspaper that its efforts form the basis of international suicide research, it is a pity that the subject of mental health often goes ignored by our own policymakers. At the end of 2022, efforts by the PPP led to the passage of a law that decriminalises suicide. Though challenged in court, it remains an important starting step, but a lot more must be done to address the mental health epidemic gripping the country.