Karnataka - Bangalore   

Action plan sought to check suicides

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 25. The Minister for Large and Medium-scale Industries, Infrastructure, and Civil Aviation, P.G.R. Sindhia, has asked the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) to submit to the State Government an action plan on preventing suicides.

Speaking at the inauguration of the seminar on `Inter-sectoral approaches for suicide prevention' organised by the departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry of NIMHANS, Mr. Sindhia said he would arrange for a meeting of the Chief Secretary, the Ministers concerned, and doctors from NIMHANS to discuss the issue.

Mr. Sindhia said NIMHANS should identify the critical factors that led people to take the extreme step.

Curse

Suicides were a curse on society and the problem had to be dealt with through a holistic approach involving non-governmental organisations (NGOs), college managements and teachers, family physicians, police officials, and the Health and Family Welfare Department. Suicide by farmers had become a big issue in the country sometime ago and nearly 500 such cases were reported in Karnataka. Poverty was the main reason for farmers taking the drastic step. Now, college studentswere taking their own lives.

Reasons

Saying that the issue was complicated, the Minister said there were many reasons that prompted a person to take his life. One should think why a State such as Kerala, where the literacy rate is the highest, had the highest suicide rate, Mr. Sindhia said.

Mohan K. Isaac, Professor of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, said the institute had recently started a WHO-funded project to map and document organisations that were active in suicide prevention. A recent study by Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, in rural areas around Vellore showed that the suicide rate there was 10 times the figure in the official records. The survey revealed that among those in the 10 to19 age group, the incidence of suicide was 70 times higher than in the U.K. and the U.S.

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