Take stock of agonies

If media reports are anything to go by, recent weeks haven’t been happy for the Bhutanese society. A flurry of crime stories coming from different parts of the country has had many observant people thinking about the country’s social health.

This month, hardly a single day has passed without a piece of disturbing crime news. It was rape, murder, or suicide.

On September 7, the police find a young man dead in the heart of the Thimphu city. On September 8, news of a suspected murder comes from Samtse. On September 9, a young father allegedly murders his three-month-old baby apparently to walk out on her mother with ease. On September 10, a 27-year-old woman from Gelephu kills herself by jumping into Mao River. On September 11, the police arrest a labourer in Trashigang for attempted rape.

And of course, a 60-year-old man from Samtse and a 19-year-old man from Dagana were arrested for rape. Following hard on the heels of these incidents were the arrest of a Class IV student for alleged sexual harassment and a Chamgang prisoner taking his own life. And these are only the reported cases. We do not know how many such cases might be going unreported.

Our authorities only list suicide, murder, and rape cases. As the lists become longer, our memory becomes shorter. We keep adding new cases to the lists but know little about the whys and wherefores about them. Given our small population, the per capita suicide and rape cases, for example, could be alarmingly high. All is not well.

In spite of all our well-meaning policies, where on the ground are we going wrong? It is a paradox that crimes, particularly ones driven by desperation like suicide, are increasing rapidly in a country that boasts of creating and enhancing conditions for happiness. Certainly something is going terribly wrong. It is high time that we became less narcissistic and asked difficult questions. Perhaps it is time for us to spend as much time and money on identifying heartaches and agonies on the ground as on organizing big GNH conferences.