KABUL (SW): The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) here on Monday marked the World Suicide Prevention Day with the theme "Take a Minute, Change a Life".
Qodri Yezdan, commissioner for Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said on the occasion eighty percent of the victims are female and twenty per cent are male. Under-age marriages, joblessness, illiteracy, psychological problems and ragging violence were marked as the main reasons behind the surging numbers of suicides in Afghanistan.
She added families avoid reporting cases of female suicides, but the statistics documented from the cases reported at hospitals and at the commission prove up to 3000 women and girls commit suicides each year. The AIHRC official said 95 per cent of suicide incidents occur in families with low-literacy levels.
Feda Mohammad, director MoPH, acknowledged that the latest figures of suicides in the country are not known for various reasons. He said statistics from 2012 suggest 1200 suicides were committed in the country, 50 per cent of the victims were female. He said on surveys in the country’s capital Kabul, and Herat and Logar provinces indicated that more than 2000 individuals, mainly teenaged girls, tried to burn themselves to death.
The MoPH officials underlined Herat, Badghes, Farah, Nimroz and Kandahar provinces as particularly vulnerable to suicide cases. Upon completion of studies, up to 93 trained physiatrists from 19 provinces received degrees on the occasion.
ENDS
