It has never been easy to talk about suicides as a society due to stigma attached to it. It is even more difficult for society to address this problem. But for Psychiatrist Lakshmi Vijayakumar, working on this area and addressing the mental well-being of society has been a life-long journey.In 1986, Vijayakumar founded Sneha, a suicide prevention centre. Since then, she has worked with various governments, educational institutions and other institutions to help in improving mental health and prevent suicide.She was also instrumental in the inclusion of suicide prevention in the National Mental Health Policy of India; and also part of four-member committee that recommended the controversial ban on online games in Tamil Nadu.In a conversation with CNBC TV18, she shares her view on various issues concerning children at large and more.Also Read: 19 fixed dose drugs might come under the hammer todayEdited excerpts:Q: Have you been engaging with the government on the National Strategy for suicide prevention post the recognition by the government?A: Yes, it is a continuous effort.I have been urging the health secretary in writing to look at implementing the strategy. I am informed that the secretary has written to all the states asking them to have a state-level strategy on this and develop a plan. There are plans to have a meeting with various state health secretaries on this.Unfortunately, the draft took two years to be officially recognised. So, we will have to wait and see how long the implementation will take. Some states like Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have started some level of work based on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy .While there will be a state-level plan, a central coordinating body will monitor this.Meanwhile, in some states like Tamil Nadu, the efforts to reduce suicide has taken place in form of banning of certain pesticides. Some states are adopting bits and pieces from NSPS.Q: The IIT Council has been discussing mental health concerns among students in a more organised manner. How do you see this?A: Around 8-9 years ago, there was a similar situation in IITs — when suicides among students were high. At that time, the union and the Human Resource ministry had formed a committee — and I was part of it. We went to various IITs across the country and interacted with students and gave a report to IITs.While some IITs followed the report and suggestions, others have clearly failed to follow it.Suggestions included marking students on absolute marks and no grading; and no display of marks on notice boards — as these were triggers for many students.We also suggested that any person who enters IIT should have a two-three weeks of orientation programme. This will help teachers and counselors understand the student better and help address their concerns after understanding their social, economic and cultural background.Another suggestion was to get counselors among the students and not in a closed room but in a more informal or casual setting. In addition, provide peer students and helpline numbers for distressed students.Q: It’s been three years since the COVID outbreak. Time has passed. For over a year or more, students are back in school. Do you still see any adverse side-effects among children?A: One silver lining during COVID was cancellation of exams, leading to drop in exam-related suicide among students. This shows the kind of system we have. Around 500 lives were saved due to this.But the side-effect of COVID-induced lockdown was gadget addiction. Children are unable to get away from that. In school, their academic performance and their attention has dropped. It will still take some time for these children to get into the groove.Children are the ones who were most affected physically , mentally and socially In a survey with children, I found they only prefer chatting over audio calls. This is worrying.Also Read: Mastering Your Mind: How habits impact your brain and how to rewire themQ: You were part of the committee that suggested that online gaming should be banned in Tamil Nadu. Do you still feel ban in an answer to this problem?A: More than 40-50 people committed suicide due to online games and so on. There is a difference between offline and online gaming. In online gaming, the temptation to play a game can arise at any point of time – there is no control on this. It can be said that one death by suicide is equivalent to 20 suicide attempt.This is simple: if someone has to make money someone has to lose money. The most important thing here is that gambling addiction has huge repercussions and it is usually the vulnerable who fall prey to this. Most suicides are attempted and committed due to gambling addiction — more than even alcohol addiction.In the last two years, behavioural addiction – like online gaming, internet addiction, social network addiction etc – has increased immensely. The tragedy is that one third of the children are cyber bullied. And one third of them suicidal. But no company who can profile their users can help profile bullies and help mitigate this problem at hand.Q: Why do you feel Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code should be repealed?A; According to Mental Health Act, despite what is there in IPC 309, the person who committed suicide in distress should not be punished. But IPC 309 is still there. So the stigma around it is still there. We have been trying to talk to Supreme Court judges and other experts to eliminate this section altogether. However, there is not much that courts can do, but the power to decriminalise it lies in the purview of the government.Also Read: Mind Matters | To the brink and back
