Depression: A Matter of Life and Death

In a society sometimes it becomes really hard to survive, for decades it is being like that, you must’ve heard about the well-known quote by Charles Darwin“survival of the fittest” it basically means, that the one who’s the fittest will live to tell the tale and others will die. Now let’s discuss today’s world where everything has become so competitive that if this principle was to work then most of the people would be dead by now. In times like these, where everything is so tough to achieve yet so important, normally people start struggling. Sometimes there is no way out and they can’t find a way to achieve anything in their life and that’s where the depression peeps into the life of a normal person, depression is distinct for each person and a person can be struggling socially, economically or emotionally it doesn’t matter what may be the motive but the person becomes lonely and cannot discover the way out of such problems. If an outsider looks into such a problem, it may not seem too huge to them. But for the person struggling with such problems, it may be the end of the world.  In lifestyle like today’s, it has become frequent as people normally live on their own and loneliness takes over them. Thus every section of the society has to come out and support each other, otherwise the most common thing amongst us will be suicides and people will not find a way out of such problems.

Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorders, and Eating disorders are some of the issues which are usually neglected by society at large. Depression is a mental illness where an individual takes their issues very severely and thinks that they’ll by no means get the happiness that they deserve and usually the only option stays with them is taking their own life. Now, suicide is not the only alternative as it no longer only affects the deceased family however society as a whole, because the reasons due to which a person took his own life could’ve been dealt with and nothing is more vital than the life of a person. In Indian law, before the year 2017 “attempt to suicide” used to be punishable under section 309 of IPC. According to this section, the person attempting suicide if saved will be punishable with imprisonment and fine. In some of the instances of depression, a person attempting to take his own life ought to have been going through hard times and that is why he/she tried to take their own life and if by any chance saved then would’ve to go through the court proceedings, such individual who’s already going through the failure of their attempt to take life can’t be given greater stress by filing a case against them. It was debatable that if there is an inclusion of the right to life under Article 21 of the Indian constitution. Then right to take life should also be covered, and by this virtue Section, 309 was declared unconstitutional however because the right to life is an inherent right and a natural right which cannot be compromised with the right to die, as suicide is an unnatural termination of life thus as a consequence of this, Section 309 cannot be unconstitutional.

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Decriminalizing Section- 309

It was the question that because Section 309 is covered in Indian Penal Code, and criminalizes the act of suicide, would it be justified to give the punishment to someone who’s already struggling from some kind of mental illness giving them more worries. And considering that the state has to look after the lives of the people and make society less complicated to be lived in, also the main aim of the law is to grant justice as well as better living for the citizens,such regulations which don’t look after such instances ought to be invalid and can’t be a justified law in such a society as it will solely lead to the fingers being put on the legal system of our country. To cope up with the situation in the year 2017, The Mental Health Care Act 2017 was passed where by the person attempting to suicide is said to have temporarily lost his intellect due to  some type of mental illness and cannot be punished for such an attempt. Also after the 210th report of the Law Commission of India, Section 309 was decriminalized as it was an in human regulation whether or not constitutional or unconstitutional. Decriminalizing such law was relieving as well as justified for many people.

The governmental bodies must spread awareness concerning mental health, as depression is also a disease just like cancer or diabetes wherein an individual suffers, however, it can be cured and the person could be saved from doing anything unwanted. The government issuing guidelines concerning mental health in public hospitals along with free counselors should be must, counseling in schools and colleges should also be made obligatory because depression is most frequent in students. Mental health is a subject which needs to be necessarily discussed among the society, as people commonly forget it, and possibly being nice to people around you could additionally change their perspective of life,these brief steps should be vital in our daily lives to make ourselves as well as other’s living peaceful and healthy.

References:

· http://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-1423-suicide-law-in-india.html

· https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/between-the-lines/one-suicide-attempt-every-3-seconds-india-needs-to-make-first-aid-for-mental-health-non-negotiable/articleshow/64823188.cms

· https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/covid-19-has-seeds-of-major-mental-health-crisis-warns-un/articleshow/75736950.cms

· https://thelivelovelaughfoundation.org/suicide-trends-in-india.html

· https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3146189/

· https://caps.ucsc.edu/resources/depression.html

· https://journals.lww.com/journalofchristiannursing/Fulltext/2016/04000/Teen_Depression_and_Suicide__A_Silent_Crisis.9.aspx

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