Activist reveals high rate of suicide among queer Indo-Fijians
Twelve out of 14 people who committed suicide in 2019 were queer Indo-Fijians. Human rights activist Kris Prasad highlighted this during a seminar on his quantitative study on the mental health experiences of queer Indo-Fijians at the University of the South Pacific in Laucala Bay, Suva on Monday.
The purpose of the seminar was to explore the mental health and suicide experiences of queer IndoFijians and provide recommendations to inform policies and interventions that may improve their mental health.
Mr Prasad said mental health was an issue not just in Fiji.
“LGBTQ people face discrimination, abuse, violence at such a young age so it affects their mental health.
“And in 2019 within my extended networks, within the queer community, we noticed that there were 14 people who committed suicide out of which 12 of them were queer Indo-Fijians, a big number for a small country like Fiji.”
He said most participants shared that some would not access mainstream services due to the stigma of being queer, whereas some did not like the clinical approach.
“They are not going to sit there and listen; they immediately want to fix you, but you are not going there to be fixed,” the activist said.
“You just want to be heard and there is hardly any place in Fiji where you can actually go to be heard.”
He said many respondents were told to pray instead by their counsellors and psychologists.
Mr Prasad said for most participants, mental health struggles began at a very young age and there was a need to include comprehensive sexuality education in schools to create awareness.
“Queer people actually start experiencing abuse in their childhood, especially in schools where they spend eight hours a day,” he said.
“We have a Family Life programme that talks about sexuality, but it needs to use a human rightsbased approach towards comprehensive sexuality education, address heteronormativity and recognise sexual and gender diversities at age-appropriate levels.”
Mr Prasad also highlighted that according to the Fiji Police Force, there were 1119 suicides and attempted suicide cases between 2015-2019.
“Four out of every five completed or attempted suicide cases involved Indo-Fijians,” he said.
“Almost 80 per cent were IndoFijians which revealed that males were most likely to commit suicide.
“Disproportionately high rate considering Indo-Fijian population is estimated at 33 per cent.”