— Human
6 days ago, I wrote this article “Pain is temporary, Suicide is real.” and within these 6 days we lost 2 precious lives. I wanted these young people to have little Hope. I wanted them to show little mercy for their loved ones. I wanted them to be little patient and know that this too shall pass with time. There is no wound that time can’t heal.
I am very disturbed with the news of suicide of teens and young adults at our islands. These young people were the future of this country. They were just starting their lives. What has happened to our children? Why have they become so sensitive? Why do they think that death is the ultimate answer to their pain and suffering?
In 2014, a committee was created to tackle suicide among school children and the 8-point directions of this committee include: (i) An advisory shall be issued to all Government and Private schools to identify the children who may exhibit introvert behavior or suicidal tendencies and motivate them to participate in co-curricular activities/ games and other group programmes to help them to come out of their sense of isolation and depression; (ii) Existing telephone numbers of the schools may be used as Help- lines for providing requisite support to vulnerable students; (iii) All schools shall identify and appoint at least two pro-active teachers as Nodal Teachers and Counselors and (iv) Further trained counselors having experience in guiding human behavior, to be engaged for training the Nodal Teachers identified for the purpose. Similarly, (v) All Education Zones shall have adequate number of counselors for coordinating counseling activities at the Zonal level; (vi) Heads of Schools shall conduct fortnightly/monthly counseling sessions and shall submit reports through Zonal Officers to Headquarters; (vii) All Schools shall conduct periodical yoga and meditation classes to help vulnerable students and (viii) Parents of children identified for counseling will be also sensitized to be caring and understanding so that the desired parental support is also available to vulnerable children even after school hours.
Recently, a 15 year old girl studying in class 9th killed herself. Why her school couldn’t identify her and provided her with the necessary counselling? She took away her life on the day of Diwali (Public Holiday), so where she should have called for help because school telephone numbers which may be used as Help-lines where on a holiday. I am sorry to say this but this action plan has failed drastically.
When I was discussing about the dangerous things that teenagers do with one of the teachers from a Govt Senior Secondary School of these Islands has told me that – All the teachers in the school has strict instruction from the principal of the school to not to be too close to any of the children in the school. The only duty of the teacher is to take classes and complete the syllabus. This reminds me the quote of T. T. Rangarajan, founder of Alma Mater – “What is the use of an education system if it does not teach you how to live life? We teach science but do we teach the science of living? We teach history, but don’t teach how to create history.”
Then there is another story of a young, married guy who killed himself. He was just 26 years old. A troubled personal or professional life must have triggered him to do so. But what hurts me that we didn’t have any means to help him. If and only we had some helpline numbers 24X7, or some marriage counselors to save the marriages or we lived in a joint families, we could find less young adults losing Hope for life.
When I see young couples depressed with their married life, I ask them to compare it with their grandparent’s. Didn’t our grandparents have problems in their married life? Did they commit suicide? Or did they go for divorce? Are the problems faced by us is much bigger than theirs? Why have we become so sensitive, impatient and intolerant?
Yes, I agree that stress levels have gone up now. We are so tangled in our personal and professional lives that many of us feel lonely and frustrated. Loneliness does not come from having no people around us, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to us. To solve this, we need the 24X7 help – line numbers – Call for Life.
I know some day this helpline will be in effect, but I don’t want it to be too late. I don’t want my dear fellow human beings to die and take away the Hope and Faith from this world. Until the Call for Life is established do write to me, and I will let you know there is still Hope. And it’s just a bad day not a bad life.
(If you need to communicate and vent out, or if you feel someone you love need Hope then mail me at humanatpb@gmail.com. You can also write to the Editor; he will put you in touch with me.)
