Willingness to seek help

An Engineer commits suicide after pressure to clear MGNREGA files near Mysore.

A girl studying in class 7 commits suicide in Odisha because her poor parents could not afford to pay for her notebook and pencil.

A 55 year old sales tax official in Nashik commits suicide – reason unknown.

…These are a few who made their presence felt in the news of this month, be it social media, print or TV… Many more suicides have been recorded in the police files…

Perhaps some have got unreported by the family due to ‘social stigma’ and ‘law’. Such suicides have been labeled as ‘natural death’.  

We could not save them…

Clearly, they have no access or awareness about any helpline…  

What about those who survived?

A Television anchor attempts suicide by consuming rat poison at NOIDA due to harassment at workplace. She is in hospital surviving after the incident. She even had a facebook post declaring her intention. Was she aware of any helpline…?

Do the people, trying to take that difficult plunge, ever think about a helpline that is only a phone call away?

This is the question every support center, working for the depressed and suicidal, needs to understand. Its one aspect is the publicity. But another, perhaps more significant, is the willingness of the people to seek help. How can we tackle that?