For the wretched of the earth, what is left but death?

The poor, religious savants across the board have promised, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.

If that is true, then the said poor appear to be in an increasing hurry to claim that inheritance.

Facetious as that may sound, it merely underlines the results of a serious -- even alarming -- problem that has been placed before the National Human Rights Commission. Namely, a dramatic increase in poverty-driven suicides across the country.

Studies have already indicated that once every six minutes, one Indian takes his own life.

National Crime Records Bureau statistics indicate that in 1994 - the last year for which such stats have been tabulated -- 89,195 people have committed suicide, registering an increase of 5,000 from the previous year.

Delhi-based advocate Ashok Agarwal, taking this one step further, has argued in a petition to the NHRC that 40 per cent of India's population lives below the poverty line, ergo it is arguable that at least 40 per cent of those suicides have been motivated by the despair born of poverty, and that this in turn is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of an Indian citizen as laid down under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Citing recent instances, Agarwal talks of the man who set himself on fire on May Day this year in New Delhi after the company he was employed by downed shutters and he failed to get another job; another instance of an old woman and her daughter consuming poison on May 3 after the deceased's teenage son lost his job.

"These are just two instances, there are thousands of others in Delhi and elsewhere in the country," Agarwal argues, adding that this underlined the seriousness of the situation.

Agarwal's petition cites that such deaths indicate a total failure, by both central and state governments, to discharge their constitutional obligation with regard to providing employment. 'The state cannot absolve itself from taking responsibility for the prevalent economic situation in the country, which is becoming a cause of alarming increase in suicidal charges all over the country,' he says, in his petition.

Interestingly, current stats indicate that West Bengal heads the list in terms of percentage of population committing suicide, with 12,389 self-inflicted deaths reported from there in 1994 alone. Ironically, India's industrial and economic capital, Maharashtra, ranks second with 10,792 suicides while Tamil Nadu with 9,284, Karnataka with 9,050 and Kerala with 8,533 follow in that order.

The thrust of Agarwal's argument is that the right to life is enshrined in Article 21, that suicide is an unnatural termination of life, and as such inconsistent with the right to life, which, he further argues, includes the right to live with human dignity.

The lawyer has demanded that the NHRC take emergent steps -- and suggested that the first of these steps should be asking the central and state governments to place before it a detailed report on the causes of suicidal deaths reported from their jurisdiction during the past three years. The NHRC reportedly has taken up the matter, and are on the verge of launching an investigation.