Attempting suicide was decriminalized in India in 2017, but experts say more needs to be done to challenge stigma.
Mumbai, India – Nyana Sabharwal was 13 years old when she lost her mother to suicide.
Having struggled with alcoholism and what Sabharwal now understands was an undiagnosed mental illness, her mother had hanged herself while everyone else was asleep.
Her mother had told her, on several occasions, that she wanted to take her own life.
“I knew growing up that my mother was thinking of suicide, I just didn’t know what I should be doing about it as a child,” she says.
Growing up, Sabharwal was her mother’s primary caregiver. “It was difficult because I didn’t know really what was the right thing to do and how to take care of my mum.
“As a child, you don’t recognize what suffering is because you look up to your parents as these people who are supposed to be perfect.”
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