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A
definition of suicide - derived from the latin word -
says in simple words that it is the act of intentional
ending of one’s own life. Why do people want to
kill themselves?
A person’s
normal desire is to live long—in spite of
failures, pains and distresses! But why people choose
to end their lives? Is it not paradoxical? Suicide
is the result of a conflict between the wish to live and
the urge to die. Statistics proclaim that every five minutes
someone somewhere attempts suicide. Suicides do not
conform to any particular pattern—it happens to
men and women, young and old, rich and poor, sick or healthy….
What is the cause that drives the people to resort to
this extreme step? Suicide
is a multi faceted, complex problem. In order to
find some answers to this distressing problem
who could be a better choice than SNEHA—a voluntary
organisation working with the avowed objective of suicide
prevention. We talked to Mr.P.V. Sankaranarayanan,Director,Sneha,
about the wide ranging issues on the subject—The
interview ranged between the laudable efforts of
sneha in particular, and the complex issues
related to suicides in general…
Here
we go:
SNEHA—a name befitting the mission of the
organisation—love, care, compassion, understanding all
expressed in one word. Can you give us a brief on Sneha
?
Sneha was
inaugurated on 14th April 1986 with a sole view of
suicide prevention and emotional support to the desperate,
distressed, dejected with suicidal urge. In its 19 years of
service more than 1 lakh and 15 thousand people have used
the services of Sneha. There is no holiday for us. We are
open from 8 a.m to 10 p.m in the night; Ready and alert to
respond to the calls of desperate people. Our services are
totally free.
We have about 50 totally
committed volunteers who respond to the calls and offer
emotional support. Sneha is run only on public donations.
How
are the volunteers selected ? Offering emotional
support at a time the callers are in a utmost
desperation needs skills of understanding and careful
handling.
Yes, true... our volunteers are from all walks of life
- students, housewives, professionals, retired senior
persons, businessmen… we have
a defined selection process and after selection
we offer them extensive training to handle the people
who call on us. They offer their services totally voluntarily
without any monetary expectation. Any person who
is above the age of 20 with an attitude of caring
for others feelings is taken as a volunteer.
What are the general methods adopted for
offering support to people who call on Sneha?
We listen to
people with empathy, care and concern. We accept people as
they are, and respect them for what they are. We do not criticise them or sit on
judgment on their action. We allow
them to talk freely, and allow them to unburden their
feelings freely.
We
help them to come out of their confused stage—desperate
stage, to come to a clear state of mind. People feel comfortable
talking to us. We offer them total and unconditional support,
acceptance and respect. Absolute confidentiality is maintained
by the volunteers.
Apart from the persons who call on you desperately, is
it not necessary to reach out to people to create an
awareness to tackle their stress related problems etc.,?
We
do conduct awareness programmes for students, teachers,
parents, nurses, police personnel and all other people
of the society. We also conduct out-reach programmes
where the incidence of suicide is more. We have been nominated
by the Tamil Nadu police department to talk about
psychological problems related to suicide to the community.
Recently Sneha has been selected by Tamilnadu Govt
as one of the faculties for training those field
workers, NGOs, and other relief workers offering
support to tsunami victims, to come out of their trauma,
and psycho-physical problems.
Coming to
the general issues connected with suicide, what is the
incidence of suicide
in India?
Annually there are about 1,08,593 cases of suicide in
India. Out of which 10,976 cases are in Tamilnadu and
out of which 1,084 cases in Madras.
What are the general causes for suicides in India?
Family problems and physical ailments account for 20%
of the suicides, and other reasons are failure in love,
failure in examinations, poverty, pangs of separation
etc.
Is
there any thing called a suicidal tendency? Is it a myth
or fact that people who frequently talk of suicide never
commit suicide?
The people who talk of suicide are to be watched, and
timely emotional support is to be given knowing the
cause.
Are people who commit suicide mentally ill?
No. There is no generalisation like that. May be only
10% of the people who commit suicide may be mentally
unstable. Suicide is an Impulsive act. The thought may
be there but the action takes place only late in a
heightened state of emotion. Various factors - economical,
social, psychological, lack of support, feeling of
loneliness, feeling of rejection are the various
factors that contribute to suicide. Even normally
mentally stable people commit suicide in an
impulsive moment.
Don’t you think that media is glorifying suicide?
Yes, I agree. Some of the photos in magazines and
Television show the pictures and the actual act of
suicide by pouring kerosene oil or by hanging etc., These
things should be avoided.
What will be your one line suggestion to bring down
the suicide rates ?
People should be taught from the young age that failure
is a part of life and they should face it boldly. Any
failure is not the end of life and perhaps it opens up
new beginnings.
We end this
article by a quotation.
“Suicide is not chosen. It happens when pain exceeds
resources for coping with pain. It is simply an imbalance
of pain versus coping resources. One can survive suicidal
feelings if one can do either of the two things – find a
way to reduce your pain or find a way to increase your
coping resources.”
Yes, that is precisely well meaning organisations
like SNEHA are trying to do.
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