Depression sets in as bandh in Darjeeling nears 100 days

SILIGURI: When political parties enforce a day-long bandh, people usually take it for a holiday and find little reason to stay indoors. Stretch that one day to one hundred and, as Darjeeling shows, the same crowd can crumble under stress and find itself falling into mild to severe depression.

Psychiatrists, counsellors and teachers are reporting cases of stress and anxiety in the north Bengal hills even as the bandh shows no signs of nearing an end.

For over three months — 96 days to be precise, beginning June 15 when a police raid on the residence and office of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung kicked off the indefinite shutdown — shops, educational institutions, business establishments and entertainment zones in the hills have maintained a silent posture. Financial insecurity, political instability and disruption of Internet services have compounded people’s sufferings.

“I am getting calls from people almost regularly. They complain of stress. They feel isolated. If this is not checked now, it will turn to a state of depression,” said Dr Nirmal Kumar Bera, head of psychiatrist department, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.

“... I always had low blood pressure, but for the last couple of weeks I have developed high blood pressure and now I am taking medicine,” said Sudha Chettri, a teacher at a governmentrun school and a mother of two.

“That the agitation is going nowhere despite wholehearted support of people has hurt me a lot. My three children are sitting idle. We are running out of essential commodities.

My husband hasn’t been paid for three months,” said one Rita Gurung.

Phurba Tamang, a state government employee from Kalimpong, is worried with Dussehra festival round the corner.

“Whatever small savings we had have already been spent. My son has become irritable...”

A nurse at Bijanbari block primary health centre said children as young as 10 and 11 years old are showing signs of high blood pressure, or have already developed heart burn and headache. Dr Bera’s concern is corroborated by two of his colleagues in Siliguri and Gangtok.