No, our election booth level officers aren't dying of stress

A dangerous thing the Indian news media does is attribute reasons for suicide.

- MANU JOSEPH

Any straightforward ‘cause’ cited for this form of death is at risk of being erroneous, apart from being dangerous, even if such a reason is sourced from a person’s suicide note. People are not taken so seriously when they speak of themselves in their best times, yet a note they write in their darkest hour is used to explain their final act.

When there is no note, the media deduces a simple reason from what the family of the deceased say. At times, political motives amplify convenient reasons.

All this has surfaced once again with the suicides of booth-level officers of the Election Commission of India (ECI). A story has developed that across several Indian states, as the ECI pressures its officers to verify voter credentials, the stress has driven some of them to untimely deaths. The exact numbers are oddly hard to confirm; as reported, about ten officers have died, of which five are believed to be suicides.

Media outlets have attributed ‘cause’ to these suicides: increased work pressure. This is in line with an old media habit. A few weeks ago, a doctor died of suicide and the ‘reason’ amplified by the media was the rejection of her application for a US visa. When a young Instagram influencer killed herself, the ‘reason’ assigned was her falling number of followers. When students in Kota kill themselves, the ‘reason’ is exam anxiety. When a ‘farmer’ kills himself, the ‘reason’ is usually ‘debt.’