Noida sisters' lonely deaths: It's ''kodokushi'' in Japan

Some scholars are now saying that the two sisters, who were found starving in their Noida house recently, may be suffering from a condition called 'Lonely Deaths', a medical term used in Japan to define people who choose to die in reclusion.

A Japanese researcher says his country has been dealing with incidents of "lonely deaths" for some time now.

"There are growing incidents of lonely deaths in Japan. We call it "kodokushi". Like the two sisters, these Japanese live alone and die alone without asking for help," Yuichi Hattori, director and chief therapist at Sayama Psychological Institute, a private clinic in Sayama City, north of Tokyo told PTI in an email interview.

Anuradha (43) and Sonali Bahl (40) were found in a frail and dehydrated condition by social activists and police who had to break into their first-floor home in Noida, a satellite city on the outskirts of Delhi. The older of the two died soon after the rescue and the younger sister is undergoing medical care.

While psychologists in India attribute a combination of social apathy and life stresses to be possible causes behind the sisters' social reclusion, Hattori says people choose "kodokushi" for different reasons.

"The core problems seem to be their inability to relate to people and their desire to stay away from people. But I can't say for certain, as I haven't checked the case of the two sisters by myself," says the researcher who specialises in treating dissociative identity disorder.

Author Michael Zielenziger who has spent time in many countries as a foreign correspondent says India has issues of class and caste that are not really found in Japan.

"I do not think India and Japan share very many similarities...but I do believe 'social isolation' is a 'coping mechanism' used to keep away from distress...," he told PTI in an email interview.

In his book "Shutting out the Sun", Zielenziger talks about more than one million young adults in Japan known as the "hikikomori", who withdraw from societies for months or years at a time, not going to class, not working, not even  leaving their homes, and often not even abandoning their rooms.

These recluses become wholly dependent on their mothers to feed them, writes Zielenziger.

Researcher Hattori describes 'hikikomori'  as the self-imposed confinement of people, mostly in their teens, twenties, and thirties.

"They have reclusive life for years, even decades while avoiding interactions with people. They do not have psychotic symptoms."

While Hattori says there are no official explanations for the causes of hikikomori and no official treatment, he has in his book "Hikikomori and Family Trauma," explained the condition as caused by a child's failure to attach to its mother. "The child without maternal bonding grows an adult with distrust and fear of people, and inability to relate to other people," says Hattori.

The Japanese researcher says, "The Japanese parallel of the case (of the Noida sisters in India) is kodokushi. We have a growing number of kodokushi. It is not unusual that my hikikomori clients have a fear of kodokushi after their parents' death," he says.

Professional counselors and activists point out that neighbourhoods and resident welfare organisations should don a more activist mantle and there is need for a mass initiative to build up social capital in the society.

Abdul Mabood, founder director of an NGO based in south Delhi says they come across cases where people are found living alone and dying alone.

"Society is becoming uncomfortable selfish society and the support system seems to have completely eroded. Particularly in Delhi and its satellite towns it is not easy to live the life of a single woman."

Mahmood, whose centre helps victims of trauma and abuse says "for every case that comes out in the open through the media and the police and there are a lot of cases that go unreported."

However, not everyone seems to agree that social apathy or a "selfish society" is the cause for incidents like the Bahl sisters.

"I think blaming it on society is a very superficial and isolated you cannot leave it to society in general. The case of the sisters may be an isolated one because even in urban areas there is a lot of community participation among people of similar interests. Youngsters get together and play, some have their love for music, colony welfare associations and colony urban areas in urban areas conduct festivals etc," says Prof BS Baviskar, a sociologist at the Institute of Social Science in Delhi.

Psychiatrist Jitender Nagpal says the sisters may suffer from depressive anxiety. "On an average I see four to six families per month who are living in a state of neglect and abused by society. Social apathy could be the beginning of metal illness."

With thousands living alone in metros, some people buckle under the stress and withdraw into shells and become disconnected with their environment. Psychiatrists have found that such symptoms are contagious and could affect family members too.

"There is a lot of mirroring of symptoms of  very close relationships. In the case of the Bahl sisters it could be the more helpless of the partner becomes subjugated to the dominating one and the symptoms rub off," Nagpal says.
Sonali Khan, country director of Breakthrough an advocacy group who runs "Bell Bajao campaign" a popular social campaign against domestic violence says mental health is also linked to abuse and violence.

"Single women in the city are wary of seeking out help. They have to deal with complex and multiple issues of insecurity and acute sense of alienation. We hope to create awareness about mental health and violence," says Khan.