Suicide is a political, social, economic, cultural and mental health question. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, decriminalises the attempt to take one's life, but the stigma around a serious public health issue remains.

We’ve been enduring a mental health crisis for a very long time. Most of us absorb it painfully, despairingly—silently. But sharing our stories helps lessen our burden.?An extreme extrapolation of the mental health malaise, suicide, sparks contentious conversations. People who die by it are considered cowards and criminals. But we don’t pause to reflect that those whom we call perpetrators are, in fact, victims. They need our empathy not judgments, helping hands not cruel whips.?

For its next issue, in the week of World Suicide Prevention Day, Outlook takes a considered look at suicides, analysing it in the realms of education, media, cinema, and politics.