November 27, 2019
Pratima Mondal speaks on the high suicide rate in India and mental health awareness
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the House to an important issue. Sir, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest report, India has the highest suicide rate in the south-east Asian region. The report said that India’s suicide rate is 16.5 suicides per one lakh people. Around 8 lakh people end their own life in India. We are lagging behind in the area of mental health awareness.
Sir, on top of that, there exists no national helpline for people who want to seek help. Most of the helpline numbers run by different NGO’s either turn out to be busy or the person providing help is not trained. In severe cases they are very harsh to the help seeker. The moment when someone decides to end their own life, they are extremely delicate and soft and one meaningful word can change their decision. One wrong move will push them towards death.
So, India needs a national helpline number to provide help to the people; that will open several branches of employment and save several thousands of life. Thank you, Sir.
