Browsing Tag: Suicide

Although society protests against dowry, many many Sikhs individually still continue to encourage it.This practice is not confined to Sikhs alone but throughout the Indian sub continent.But in Sikhi, it has been clearly prohibited, and places women on an equal footing with men. Although religiously banned, it is culturally ingrained and many find it hard to let go of this gruesome practice of dahez.

Not assisted dying, but Guru-guided living, is the Sikh way. "This body is the Lord's Temple wherein is revealed the jewel of Divine comprehension".

Farmers are killing themselves over debt in Punjab state -- and leaving wives, daughters, and other women behind. - Mallika Kaur

Over the past 15 years, a scourge of suicides has claimed the lives of an estimated 250,000 farmers in India. And the death count is still climbing, according to a new report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University. “On average, one farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in India,” said Smita Narula, director of the CHRGJ

I hope to initiate a public dialogue among members of the Punjabi Sikh community about adolescent suicide and suicide-related behaviors, a topic that has been silenced in the past due to cultural stigma.

Mandip Kaur, a 29-year-old housewife from a farming family in southern Punjab, guards her husband round the clock. "I fear he may commit suicide," she says in broken Hindi.

The Punjab government has finally allocated funds to assess the breadth of farmer suicides in the state.