Goal is suicide-free TN: Helpline

Receiving daily doses of abuses from her only son, and no means of income to the household, Meenakshi called the 104 Helpline out of desperation. “She was lonely and could not bear her son’s disrespect towards her.

We spoke to her son and spent a lot of time in providing her with supportive counselling. Finally, she decided to find a job and keep herself busy,” said B Elayaraja, who man’s the helpline.

“While many of the calls we receive cite failure in relationships, academic failure and financial stress as reasons that

drive them to take the extreme step, many of them are generally from women who have husbands who are alcoholic or ones having an extra marital affair,” he said.

With the Blue Whale challenge trapping a number of children, and the stress of MBBS counselling – along with pressure due to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) - a number of students and parents have been dialling 104 to seek advice. “We have had a number of children and parents with suicidal tendencies calling us in the past one week, especially girls and mothers,” added Elayaraja.

With over 60,000 calls relating to psychological counselling since its inception, the Helpline has succeeded in saving over 1,200 people with suicide tendencies.

Barely a week away from World Suicide Prevention Day, the Helpline aims at helping the state become ‘Suicide-free’. “Tamil Nadu is known for its high number of suicides - in 2015, as many as 15,777 suicides were reported in Tamil Nadu, which was 11.8 per cent of the country’s suicides, according to the National Crime Records Bureau - and it is essential to provide help to those who need it. With this year’s focus on problems at the work place, we intend to focus on encouraging employees of companies to remain free of stress,” said Prabudoss, who heads the GVK EMRI, which operates the Helpline.

“This year, we will hold a more intensive campaign on suicide prevention. Though unsure

of why the state’s suicide statistics is so high, our whole objective is to have a suicide free Tamil Nadu or accident free state,” he added.