Sharp rise in Indian investors’ suicides

[mawilson 2,133]

Sharp rise in Indian investors’ suicides

By James Lamont in New Delhi

The global financial crisis is taking its toll in India’s cities as some despairing investors

and stockbrokers seek refuge from their losses and debt in suicide.

A wave of financially related deaths over the past month has sparked concerns about

the vulnerability of unsophisticated investors and borrowers encouraged by rising

markets and easy credit in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

“We are seeing a rise in the number of suicides happening as a result of financial

pressures,” said Johnson Thomas, the director of Aasra, which runs a suicide prevention

helpline in Mumbai.

“People are committing suicide because of difficulties associated with globalisation and

a life all about debt. Lots of people are living beyond their means.”

As billions of rupees have been wiped off the Bombay Stock Exchange, Aasra has

started holding outreach sessions in India’s financial capital for distressed workers at

financial institutions and the bourse.

A 24-year-old stockbroker in Hyderabad was one of the latest casualties of the

markets fall. Police said Amir Ali Virani of Omen Solutions had taken his life after

losing money when the Sensex index fell below 8,000 points last month. He was found

hanging from a ceiling fan at his home.

A few days earlier in the same city, Bhupendra, another stockbroker, blew himself up

with his wife and baby son by igniting a gas cylinder.

In spite of assurances by Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, that the country

is resilient to the credit crisis, death for some is preferable to the shame of financial

loss. Police in Mumbai last month discovered a family destroyed by overwhelming

credit card debt. Seventy-year-old A. K. Nair and his wife had swallowed poison. Their

middle-aged daughter and son had hanged themselves. Between them, they had

73 credit cards. The siblings had two cars and had taken out a bank loan to start a

new business.

Also in Mumbai, a 34-year-old stock market investor, Parag Tanna, killed himself and

his pregnant wife. In a suicide note to his mother, Mr Tanna, who had lost his job with

a brokerage, said he saw no way out of his personal financial crisis.

Police estimate that 118,000 people in India killed themselves in 2006, a rise of

34 per cent over a decade.

About 1,000 farmers hit by crop failure and debt kill themselves every month, often

with lethal draughts of insecticide, according to official figures.

link

[alienlovechild 75]

“People are committing suicide because of difficulties associated with globalisation and

a life all about debt. Lots of people are living beyond their means.”

They should be counseled that, in America, debt is a way of life. Indians must still have a sense of shame that few Americans have. Here, if you fail, you blame somebody else and asked to bailed out.

Police estimate that 118,000 people in India killed themselves in 2006, a rise of

34 per cent over a decade.

About 1,000 farmers hit by crop failure and debt kill themselves every month, often

with lethal draughts of insecticide, according to official figures.

This has been going on for a while and it's sad. It hits home after going to India and knowing a lot of Indians in the States.

[dalegg 143]

Police estimate that 118,000 people in India killed themselves in 2006, a rise of

34 per cent over a decade.

About 1,000 farmers hit by crop failure and debt kill themselves every month, often

with lethal draughts of insecticide, according to official figures.

link

You start getting numbers like that here and there will be nooo problem with unemployment!

[Niels Bohr 72]

In India, there are beggers on the streets. An investor life can be recovered if they look for other jobs. No where in hell that an investor is incapable of doing something productive compared to a begger.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Niels Bohr

[Saddle Bronc 124]

“People are committing suicide because of difficulties associated with globalisation and

a life all about debt. Lots of people are living beyond their means.”

They should be counseled that, in America, debt is a way of life. Indians must still have a sense of shame that few Americans have. Here, if you fail, you blame somebody else and asked to bailed out.

In India, debt has been a part of life for aeons--oft the debtors will be forced by the creditors into indentured labour.