Recession, depression take a toll on techies

Two suicides in the space of three days in the country’s IT capital have brought the growing stress among IT workers into focus

BANGALORE: The growing stress among information technology workers in Bangalore, India’s IT capital, has been brought into focus by the suicide of two techies in the past six days.

Abhay Pratap Singh, 25, a software engineer from Chhattisgarh, was found dead at his residence in the Electronic City on Monday evening. Singh had joined Satyam Online’s Electronic City Phase II branch and was staying as a paying guest with three colleagues.

According to his roommates, Singh returned on Sunday after spending the weekend with his parents. “On Monday morning he told his roomies that he would not go to work as he was upset,” a police officer said. “When his colleagues returned at around 8pm, they found him dead.”

Singh had used a belt to hang himself. According to doctors at the Victoria Hospital, he committed suicide at about 3.30pm. No suicide note was found. Singh was cremated at the Wilson Garden crematorium on Tuesday.

Three days earlier, Krishna Babu, a software engineer with Hewlett-Packard, committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan at his residence in BTM Layout in Madiwala. Babu’s corpse was found only on Monday when neighbours complained to the police about a foul smell emanating from the house. Babu left a note in Telugu saying he was suffering from multiple personality disorder, police said. “I am fed up with life. My parents have educated me with great difficulty, but I could not keep them happy,” he wrote.

Babu, a native of Nasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, was living in Bangalore for the last two years.

Psychologists say such cases are being induced by the high stress levels faced by techies, mostly youngsters living away from the families, coupled with the growing fear of losing their jobs as the world economy teeters on the brink of recession.

MJ Thomas, a psychiatrist, said, “Most youths here are stressed. They are ambitious and don’t socialise, becoming lonely. Also, most employees in the IT/BT/BPO spectrum are migrants with no social support or family around.”

Ten per cent of youths in the city exposed to stress are depressed, he said, and 20 per cent of suicide victims suffer from depression. Work pressure alone isn’t to blame. “The global meltdown is giving them the jitters as getting another job is tough if they lose the present one,” Thomas said. “While salary cuts are common in most IT/software companies, jobs are also going for a toss. With companies giving their employees pink slips, the uncertainty related to one’s future is increasing depression.”

GK Karanth, a sociologist, agreed with this assessment. “Software professionals begin their career with great expectations,” he said. “But they soon realise that the glamour they associate with it is not there. Moreover, the work environment, the demands of the job, coupled with erratic work hours and long commutes, make it difficult for these youth to divide their work-life equation evenly.”

Adding to their woes is the superficiality in modern human relationships. “While men and women develop relationships at work, such ties do not run deep enough to give solace and strength to the youth in hard times like this,” said Karanth. “This leaves most of them with no moral support, making them depressed.”

Dr M Srihari, a psychiatrist with the Bangalore Medical College, said, “The stress level is high among professionals. But the capacity to cope with it varies from individual to individual and is linked to their family history. In all cases of suicides, there could be a history of depression. If it is a week- or month-old syndrome and brought to our notice at the right time, it can be cured. But most of the time depression goes unnoticed until it becomes grave.”

Courtesy: DNA