Censoring movies 'will not curb suicides'

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Censoring suicide scenes from Indian movies will not prevent women from taking their own lives.
Era Consumer Malaysia counsellor Nanthini Ramalo said censoring such scenes would not help women deal with their problems, which was the root cause of suicides.
She was commenting on a suggestion by Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk G. Palanivel that suicide scenes in Indian movies should be banned as they were a bad influence on viewers.
Palanivel had made the comments in relation to the suicide deaths of K. Sangeetha and her children, Sagaria Johnson, 6, and Easter, 3.
The three were killed when a train ploughed into them in Sungai Gadut, Negri Sembilan, on Tuesday.
Her seven-year-old daughter Victoria managed to wriggle free from her mother’s clutches and pulled her five-year-old brother, Jason, to the side before the train hit them. Jason, however, suffered serious head injuries and had been admitted to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
Sangeetha had apparently committed suicide with her children following an argument with her husband.
"From our experience, movies alone cannot cause suicides. It is probably only a minor contributing factor as a suicidal person would have attempted suicide a few times before. From the earlier attempts, they get the courage to finally carry it out," Nanthini said.
Relating her experience at Era Consumer’s 10 community centres nationwide, she said the main cause of suicide was the lack of someone whom the women could talk to about their problems.
A total of 3,289 women have received counselling at Era Consumer’s community centres, which were set up three years ago.
Of this, 352 were attempted suicide cases. All of them were Indian women.
Other causes of suicide, Nanthini said, include a loss of confidence, a loss of trust and their spouses’ extra-marital affairs. Physical and mental abuse and financial reasons have also driven women to commit suicide.
"For example, Sangeetha took her children with her to the railway tracks to commit suicide as she had lost her faith in everyone.
"No mother will kill her children, so she must have felt that there would be no one to take care of her children if she was no longer around."
Nanthini said that it was not easy to convince someone not to take their lives and this sometimes could take hours of counselling.
"We sometimes get calls at 3am, and if the situation warrants it, staff members from the nearest centre would visit the distressed person, no matter what time it is," she said.
Nanthini said women should also be made aware of the many counselling services provided by non-governmental organisations and government departments.
One of the problems, she said, was that many Indian women did not seek help due to language barriers.
"As such, we need more Indian counsellors as well as awareness programmes and advice columns for women in Tamil dailies," she said.