Depressed techies log out of lives; experts baffled

​Hyderabad: Hyderabad may be marching ahead as a tech-savvy city but the number of IT and ITeS employees logging out of life is leaving sociologists, medical professionals and health counselors baffled.

On Wednesday, Lucky Agarwal, 33, committed suicide by inhaling nitrogen gas, just a month-and-a-half back, another 34-year-old techie Malleshwari did the unthinkable at her house in Nallagalla and on March 5 a young Rani Manisha from Jharkhand was suspected to have jumped from the fourth-floor of the hostel she was staying in.

All three suicides tell a similar tale of depression, stress and in one case marital discord. What was common among all of them was they were working with reputed IT companies with good salaries.

According to Swathi Lakra, additional commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, there have been 1,118 suicide cases in 2014 and 2015. “It would be difficult to say how many IT employees committed suicide but going by the news reports that appear every other day, the percentage could be quite high,” she said.

Rough estimates by the department, however, pegged suicides’ percentage at 30. Dr Purnima Nagaraja, consultant psychiatrist, Dhrithi Hospitals, said, “I get close to 40 IT/ITeS employees every month complaining of stress, sleep deprivation, lack of marital life and fear of losing the job.”

Stating that this trend started about five years back, Dr Purnima said, “Financial independence at an early age is becoming their foe. In the past people would plan to buy or build a house at the fag end of their careers, now 20 plus somethings go in for huge investments and when they are unable to pay up they get depressed.”

Though India is home to the largest pool of IT professionals, unfortunately it has a high rate of suicides. Thiagarajan, director of SEVA, who has been in the field of counselling for 23 years, said, “Emotional stability is the main issue.

Young men and women just do not seem to let go their frustrations out of their chest. Research tells us that by just sharing one’s problem stress levels reduce by 50 per cent.” He goes on to add, “The lack of family support is another issue. In the past the joint family system acted like a cushion.”

Almost 40 per cent of the 350-400 people who go to SEVA every year for counselling are IT/ITeS employees. The disturbing trend of suicides by IT professionals is being attributed to the lack of emotional maturity and the mountain of expectations that is majorly self inflicted.

Dr M Phani Prasant, psychiatrist at Star Hospitals said, “Societal and peer pressure along with the mechanical life designed by the West is taking a toll on the techies.”

It is not surprising that suicides account for more lives after road accidents in India and the tri-cities of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad are reeling under the IT glitz.