A few weeks ago, alarm bells went off in my mind when I saw some worrying statistics on suicides and attempted suicides in the The Fiji Times, originating from the Fiji Police Force.
Unfortunately, the statistics presented did not take into account the different base populations behind the ethnic or regional or age group numbers. To put it simply, it can be grossly misleading to compare simple numbers of suicides of iTaukei with Indo-Fijians or different age groups, if their base populations are vastly different. In Fiji, there are roughly twice as many iTaukei as there are Indo-Fijians, so all other factors being equal, one would expect there to be twice as many iTaukei suicides as Indo-Fijian suicides. But the reality is the opposite.
To make proper international comparisons, organisations such as World Health Organization and World Bank use the criterion “suicides per 100 thousand persons”.
When we do compare suicides “per 100 thousand population” in Fiji for different groups, the statistics indicate that Fiji faces a suicide “catastrophe”, demanding explanation from our social and political leaders.
In particular, compared with iTaukei, the statistical evidence clearly shows that suicides affect Indo-Fijians more, male Indo-Fijians more, and the older Indo-Fijians more.
This is not to deny that female Indo-Fijians are also seriously affected as are older iTaukei.
Alarm bells are ringing in Fiji
These last few weeks attention has been drawn to the social disaster of suicides and attempted suicides in Fiji, part of a global phenomenon drawn attention to by World Suicide Prevention Day.
There has been a brief statement in Parliament by Fiji’s Minister of Health (Dr Lalabalavu).
There have also been comprehensive press statements by social leaders such as Hassan Khan (former director of FCOSS) and Jeremaia Merekula (Lifeline Fiji).
Mr Khan’s comprehensive press statement “Suicide and the Seniors” covered a range of relevant issues affecting older persons: possible causes of suicides and attempted suicides, the social and economic cost of self-harm and violence, and how there needs to be primary prevention and not just reduction.
While Mr Khan welcomed the recent ministerial statement by the Minister for Health, he also points to “in-actions of National Council for Older Persons (NCOP) which for the last ten plus years has been plagued by bureaucratic lethargy. For instance NCOP has been dragging its feet in the last 12 months in appointing its CEO”.
Mr Khan’s views must be placed centre stage in national discussions as he holds many responsible positions such as Vice President and Executive Director (Hon) Asia Pacific Forum on Families International APFAM International; Chairman Pearce Home Trust Suva Fiji (Voluntary); member – National Council on Older Persons (NCOP)-( Fiji Ministry of WCPA); and member – National Committee on Prevention of Suicides (Fiji Ministry of Health &MS).
Fiji Police Force database
The Fiji Police Force also issued worrying statistics on suicides and attempted suicides for six months this year, disaggregating by ethnicity, division, gender and age groups.
I am extremely grateful to Minister Pio Tikoduadua, Acting Police Commissioner Juki Chew, A/ASP Shamiana Mohammed, and Statistician Vesheshna Singh for promptly providing me with the Fiji Police Force’s raw data for the years 2019 to 2023, which I modified for my analysis for this paper.
My preliminary findings here suggest that Fiji’s suicide catastrophe requires that our social leaders and politicians must work closely together with the Fiji Police Force Statistics Department to:
(a) strengthen the data gathering and analysis by health professionals and academics at Fiji’s three universities, so that;
(b) there can be evidence-based policy formulation; and
(c) for the better targeting of national strategies for suicide reduction and prevention.
In this article I analyse the Fiji Police Force raw data for the years 2019 to 2023 using the more accurate indicators for Suicides per 100 Thousand Persons.
In the second half of the article, I also include “attempted suicides” because of the larger number of observations available, giving better perspectives on possible causes or flash points for self-harm.
National Fiji suicide rate not so worrying
Fiji’s national average rate of 9.6 suicides per 100 thousand population for the period 2000 to 2019 as estimated from World Bank data is not particularly worrying.
Fiji’s rate is slightly lower than that of Australia (11.7), NZ (12.3), Samoa (12.8) and India (14.4).
Sociologists and health specialists might like to inquire why Tonga has a much lower average of 4.2 per 100 thousand persons.
But dramatic ethnic differences: Indo-Fijian crisis
When I use Fiji Bureau of Statistics population numbers of iTaukei, Indo-Fijians and Others and my projections for 2020, to estimate the ethnic suicide averages per 100 thousand population, a massive catastrophe emerges.
The Indo-Fijian average is an incredible 28 per 100 thousand, which places Fiji’s Indo-Fijians in the worst top ten suicide countries in the world, and almost double that of India’s Average Suicide rate of 14.4 per 100 thousand persons.
In contrast, the iTaukei Average of 5 per 100 thousand is quite low.
Clearly, the national average figure for Fiji of 11 according to the Fiji Police data for 2019 to 2023 is not giving the true picture because it is pulled down by the low average for iTaukei.
Clearly, while suicides are a national problem to be tackled by the Ministry of Health and other government ministries like Social Welfare, it is the social organisations of Indo-Fijians who must take a central role in discussing causes of suicides among Indo-Fijians and possible strategies for reduction and prevention.
Graph 2 ought to be sounding warning bells for Sanatan Dharam, Arya Samaj, the Muslim League and all the Christian churches catering to Christian Indo-Fijians. Are they at all concerned?
Further analysis of the suicides data from the Fiji Police Force provide other pointers to the nature of the problem.
Rates of suicides by age groups
When the Fiji Police Data is disaggregated by ethnicity and age groups and the common indicator of suicides per thousand persons estimated, Graph 3 gives the startling result that it is the older Indo-Fijians who are particularly prone to suicides at even higher rates than the ethnic averages.
While the Indo-Fijian average was 28 per 100 thousand persons, that for the (20 to 54) group was an even higher 34, as was the 34 average for the (55 and over) age group that Mr Khan’s press statement draws attention to.
In contrast, the iTaukei rates were 6 for the (20 to 54) group and an extremely low 2 for (55 and over).
Why older Indo-Fijian males and Indo-Fijian females?
It is important to separate out the lesser impact on the younger age groups, if one is to understand the true impact on the older age groups.
The two graphs 4a and 4b, in addition to the ethnicity factor, isolate the suicide rates for the two older age groups, for males and females separately so as to comprehend the nature of the problems a bit better.
Graph 4a shows that for Indo-Fijian females, the suicide rate per 100 thousand persons while a low 6 for the younger age group (0 to 19) rises to 18 for the age group (20 to 54) and even higher to 22 for the age group (55 and over).
Why are the adult Indo-Fijian females having such high rates of suicide, and even higher for the 55 and over age group, compared to the quite low rates for all three iTaukei age groups (3, 3 and 2)?
Graph 4b then shows the even more horrendous rates of suicide for Indo-Fijian males. While that for younger Indo-Fijian males is 11 for the (0 to 19) age group, it shoots up to 50 for the (20 to 54) age group and almost as high 45 for the (55 and over) age group.
What on earth is happening to the older Indo-Fijian males to raise their suicide rate to such massive rates which are higher than the highest national rates in the world, according to World Bank data.
One must not lose sight that even the iTaukei males in the (20 to 54) group have a high rate of 10 per 100 thousand compared to a low 3 for iTaukei females in that age group.
But Graphs 4a and 4b are pointing to the massive problems facing the older and elderly Indo-Fijian males and females. What is going on?
Some reasons given on police database
The Fiji Police database does have some information on reasons given for the suicides and attempted suicides with the numbers here not adjusted for population numbers.
Unfortunately for some 60 per cent of all cases the Fiji Police Force had recorded “not known”.
It would surely be useful if researchers could go back to the cases and see if more information could be gathered on this variable.
Nevertheless, it is extraordinary that a large 24 per cent of the females cases (and 17 per cent of male cases) were associated with what I crudely reclassified as “partner problems”: with husbands, wives, de facto partners, boyfriends or girlfriends, many appearing quite trivial.
Another 21 per cent for females cases of self-harm (10 per cent for males) were attributed to “family” pressures from parents, in-laws and other family members, again many appearing quite trivial.
Quite small per centages were associated with sickness and depression or work related.
But it is quite possible that all four of the reasons could be higher if the “not known” category were reassigned following more research.
What occupations?
The Fiji Police Force statistician provided me with some data on the occupations of those who had committed suicides or attempted suicides in the years 2019 to 2023.
Following some reclassification by me I arrived at Table 2 and Table 3, with some possible differences between females and males.
Table 2 shows that an extraordinary 50 per cent of all female suicides and attempted suicides were by persons classified as being domestic duties or “housewives”, while 24 per cent were students. The student category is extremely puzzling as the specific reasons given on the police database appear quite trivial.
Table 3 indicates that for males, some 31 per cent were engaged in clerical/trades, 21 per cent were unemployed, 15 per cent were rural workers/farmers/fisher folk. A significant 9 per cent were in managerial and professional occupations.
The clear message from Table 3 would suggest that for males, their work conditions may have been important factors combined with other issues outlined in Table 2.
These three tables give further clues for researchers to find out more about the possible reasons for suicides and attempted suicides and possible avenues and strategies for tackling this social scourge.
I give some personal thoughts below although this serious subject matter requires real dedicated health experts (which I am not).
Mode of self-harm attempt
The Fiji Police Force database has information on mode of self-harm, which I re-organised. Some 51 per cent of all self-harm attempts were through the drinking of chemicals or poisons like paraquat while 43 per cent resorted to hanging.
The per centages for iTaukei were 56 per cent by hanging and 34 per cent by chemical ingestion.
56 per cent of Indo-Fijians chose chemical ingestion and 38 per cent by hanging.
While the authorities must of course consider tighter controls on poisons available to the general public, this is such an intractable problem given that someone intent on self-harm will find some other avenue if one is blocked.
Why afflicting mostly Indo-Fijians?
The graphs and tables above point to the incredibly high rates affecting Indo-Fijians in the older (20 to 54) and the (55 and Over) age groups, far more than iTaukei.
Are there historical factors that make Indo-Fijians more psychologically vulnerable such as military coups that have targeted Indo-Fijians?
Are there demographic and geographic factors that make Indo-Fijians more vulnerable, or even their daily diets of Bollywood drama?
What is happening to the basic fabric of Indo-Fijian society that is leading to such a high rate of suicides among the older Indo-Fijians? Mr Khan’s press statement points to the breakdown of family care among Indo-Fijians with younger people emigrating while leaving many of their elders to their own devices.
Mr Merekula (of Lifeline Fiji) points out: “Most of the time we don’t share about our emotions, we tend to bottle them up and things happen and suddenly we hear ‘o koya sa kauta nona bula (they have taken their life).” Mr Merekula said “we often know that our family and friends were going through things and we don’t make the effort or just take the time to ask them how they were doing”.
I have written previously two articles (The Fiji Times, Dec 14, 1996 “When Women Choose to Die” and Sep 5, 2000 “The Indo-Fijian silences on suicides”). These are readings 90 and 100 in my eBook Volume 4 Towards a Decent Fiji soon to be released on Amazon Books.
In these two articles I discussed the impact of military coups, rural-urban migration and social breakdowns, Indo-Fijian organisations totally failing to tackle the problem of suicides, the Ramayana preaching the wrong message about Sita and suicides, the poor status of women and the horrible impact of Bollywood.
I have also previously written in my Volume 2 eBook A Fair Go For All Fiji about the massive problem of an aging population that is affecting Indo-Fijians far more than iTaukei with elderly Indo-Fijians being left high and dry without financial support.
They are Readings 43 “Fiji’s elderly tsunami: the follow of ignoring ethnicity” The Fiji Times February 8, 2020; and Reading 44: “Preparing for the elderly nightmare” The Fiji Times February 15, 2020 in my Volume 2 eBook already available on Amazon Books.
Other promising data and analyses
I point out that the Fiji Police Fore database has other variables which I could not analyse properly such as “divisions”, classified as West, East, North, South, Central. These do not seem to correspond to the Fiji Bureau of Statistics “divisions” for population numbers.
There is also data on “police stations” where the events were recorded.
There is unfortunately no variable such as urban/rural.
My suspicion is that a lot of the suicides and attempted suicides in the Western Division are in rural areas where self-harm victims, especially Indo-Fijians, are isolated and without social support and where the sugar industry has been in terminal decline.
While there is massive inflow of remittances (more than $1,400 millions annually) into Fiji taking place currently (including to Indo-Fijians) some families may to totally neglected, while many need not just cash but emotional family support which has totally broken down for Indo-Fijians.
Their social organisations (and especially the religious ones) may also not be particularly active in this area of suicides and attempted suicides, a generally considered to be “taboo” for public discussions.
iTaukei on the other hand are generally more communal and potentially able provide support to each other. Their Christian religion may be also an ameliorating factor.
Can Indo-Fijian organisations and leaders learn from the iTaukei?
Can our traditional donors Australia and NZ provide some funding and experts to help Fiji through this social catastrophe?
