Suicide in Jhenaidah, Bangladesh: A Multidimensional Understanding

Abstract

Suicide, driven by complex social and emotional factors, represents a critical sociological concern in the Jhenaidah district of Bangladesh. This study offers an in-depth qualitative analysis of ten individuals from Shailkupa upazila of Jhenaidah district—nine who died from suicide and one who made an attempt at an act of self-harm—illuminating their lived experiences and socio-cultural situations in which their trajectories emerged. In combining Jatava’s philosophical explanations and Joiner’s theory of interpersonal loneliness, Durkheim’s sociological framework, feminist discourse, and symbolic interactionism, this study offers an interdisciplinary conceptualization of those situations culminating in those deaths. The district’s cultural collectivism, coupled with socialization pressures and conformity expectations in this context, elevated multiple pivotal psychosocial stresses—such as family tension, scholastic expectations, and experience of socially contagious behaviors. The research unveils how feelings of oppression, loneliness, feelings of being a burden, and easy access to self-harm tools (ropes or pesticides) can combine to create a disastrous outcome. This body of research proposes community-based health services, limitations of access to lethal means, gender equity, and modifications to decrease academic pressures in response to these tragedies. Overall, the research hopes to fill a gap in understanding suicides in Bangladesh in order to direct and create preventative strategies along with the possibility of providing hope for a safer and supportive community.