In 2022, 126 people committed suicide in the district of Tharparkar. According to reports gathered from the senior superintendent of police (SSP) office in Mithi town, 70 women and 56 men took their own lives for various reasons, including poverty. Of those who committed suicide, 47 were between the ages of 15 and 20, 70 were between 21 and 40, nine were between 40 and 60, and six were over 69 years old.
The majority of suicides occurred in the Islamkot taluka, followed by Nagarparkar, Chhachhro, Mithi, Diplo, Dahli, and Kaloi talukas. Most of those who committed suicide were from the Hindu community, with 103 people from this group taking their own lives compared to only 23 from the Muslim community.
In most cases, the police did not properly investigate the causes of these suicides and did not register any first information reports (FIRs), instead claiming that those who committed suicide were suffering from mental disorders.
Activists working on various issues in the rain-dependent, arid region of the country have criticized the Sindh government’s Thar Foundation and officials from the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company for not effectively addressing the rising suicide rates and for limiting their efforts to the town of Mithi, where they have only organized workshops. In the past five years, more than six people in Tharparkar have ended their lives by either jumping into wells or hanging themselves.
Pakistan’s southern region in the Thar desert has seen an alarming rise in suicide cases, especially among women, with authorities linking the emerging health crisis to chronic mental illness in the impoverished district. Between 2016 to 2020, the Sindh Mental Health Authority (SMHA), an arm of the provincial government, recorded 767 suicides in the southern province, of which 79 cases occurred in Tharparkar.
