City lifestyle triggers teenage suicide

City lifestyle triggers teenage suicide

Abdul Khalik
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

With the glamor of life in the metropolis a constant attraction
for the young and a source of frustration for those who cannot
afford to enjoy it, the family of 17-year-old Yuni Anggraeni
never expected that she would go that far.

"She often told me how depressed she was when looking at her
friends who could buy fancy dresses or shoes," auntie Icih
Nuraisah recalled.

"I kept telling her that she'd better stop dreaming ... her
mother earns money by washing others' clothes while her father is
a construction worker. In fact, she had to drop out of school as
we had no money. After that, she became so quiet," Icih said in a
shrill voice in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Monday.

She was the one who found Yuni's cold body hanging by a
plastic rope tied to a wooden bar inside their house in Kebon
Jeruk, West Jakarta, last Tuesday.

Yuni was only one of dozens of teenagers who committed suicide
in the past five months.

Data from the Jakarta Police reveals that the number of
suicide cases rocketing to 71 in the first five months alone,
compared to only around 20 in the same period last year.

Over half of the cases are young people aged below 20 and
still in school.

Earlier on May 29, Abdul Rohim, 16, ended his life because his
parents could not afford to pay his school fees, while on Feb.
15, a day after Valentine's Day, Elfi Manora, 15, killed herself
at school because her parents told her to quit school and marry a
much older man to lighten the family's financial burden.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said that although
the police still had to do more research on the motives behind
the high number of young people committing suicide, preliminary
investigation into most cases found that they came from low-
income families.

"According to witnesses, many of them complained about
financial difficulties right before committing suicide. They
probably couldn't bear the hardships of life in Jakarta,"
Tjiptono told the Post.

Psychologist Irwanto of the Atmajaya University, who often
counsels teenagers, said that while he agreed that poverty could
be a major cause of suicide, it was triggered more by continuous
humiliation as well as a communication barrier with their parents
and teachers.

"They have no chance at all to express their feelings or
communicate their problems with their parents, who are probably
busy earning money," he said.

Adding that while teenagers are facing some difficulties in
adjusting to the physical changes of adulthood, "the rough life
in the metropolis has made them stigmatized as delinquents or
criminals by adults, while at times they feel humiliated by their
friends for not being able to catch up with the latest trends or
fashion".