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Mahesh

22/11/22 21:33 PM IST

Union Health Ministry rolls out country’s first suicide prevention policy

In News 
  • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday announced a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
  • It is the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
  • The strategy is in line with the World Health Organisation’s South East-Asia Region Strategy for suicide prevention.
National Suicide prevention strategy 
  • The strategy broadly seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
  • It seeks to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years.
  • It also aims to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
  • It envisages developing guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restricting access to means of suicide.
Intiatives for Mental Health 
  • KIRAN- The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline “KIRAN” to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns.
  • Manodarpan Initiative- Manodarpan is an initiative of the Ministry of Education under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.
Suicides in India 
  • In India, more than one lakh lives are lost every year to suicide, and it is the top killer in the 15-29 years category.
  • From 2019-22, the suicide rate has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population.
  • Daily wage earners remained the largest profession-wise group among suicide victims in 2021, accounting for 42,004 suicides (25.6%).
  • The share of daily wagers death by suicide has crossed the quarter mark for the first time.
  • At the national level, the number of suicides increased by 7.17% from the years 2020 to 2021
  • The overall share of “Persons engaged in farming sector” among the total recorded suicides stood at 6.6% during 2021.
  • The “unemployed persons” group was the only one that saw a decline in suicides, with the number dipping by 12.38% from 15,652 in 2020 to 13,714 suicides in 2021.
  • Maharashtra topped the country in terms of the number of suicides reported in 2021 followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
  • Maharashtra contributed 13.5% to the total number of suicides registered across the country in 2021.
Source- The Hindu 

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