As India groans under the weight of COVID-19, another underreported crisis has come to the fore.
In the last two months, nearly ten doctors have reportedly died by suicide in different institutions across the country. Most of them were younger than 30 years. The latest addition to this unfortunate list was Mohit Singhla, a research officer in the paediatrics department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi – the third doctor to have died thus at this hospital in this period.
Earlier this month, The Wire Science informally polled 45 doctors and medical students from across the country about suicides among doctors. Over 62% of them said it is a longstanding problem that is only being reported better now.
Suicide rates are high (relative to the general population) in many of India’ medical colleges as well, but only a few cases from the more prominent institutions are even reported. “While the risk may be higher in some institutes because of the work environment, it is a countrywide problem that is not limited to a few institutions,” Shankul Dwivedi, former president of the IMA-Medical Students Network, Madhya Pradesh chapter, said.