Work-related stress, odd duty hours, irregular eating patterns and little time to spend with family members continue to pose a serious threat to the physical and mental wellbeing of men in uniform.
Suicide by three sub inspectors of police since January this year, throws up disturbing trend among the uniformed personnel. These appear to be isolated incidents, but they highlight the imperative need for stress management measures to help the police personnel cope with ‘occupational hazards.’ These also bring to the fore the need for counselling support by professional psychologists for those suffering from depression.
Everyone’s knowledgeThe police personnel are facing severe stress in their daily duties and sometimes it is forcing them to take extreme step. Surprisingly no one is ready to come out openly to explain their problems stating that it was in “everyone’s knowledge” and there is nothing new to tell about it.
The Karimnagar district senior police officials have found fault with new recruits for blaming police officials and committing suicide when they have lesser workload compared to the stress that their seniors underwent in the thick of naxalite movement.
“What is the pressure and stress the fresh police recruits are undergoing when compared to their seniors two decades ago? We discharged our duties with a lot of stress and risking our lives and none had resorted to suicide”, said Karimnagar district police officers association president M. Surender.
“The Police Department is identified with stress but not to the extent of taking extreme step. The new generation of officers are unable to cope up with the stress,” said Medak Superintendent of Police S. Chandrasekhar Reddy.
Measures initiatedThe police authorities have initiated a slew of measures like weekly-offs for the personnel, yoga camps and super-specialty medical camps for the physical and mental conditioning in Karimnagar. The Khammam District Police Officers’ Welfare Association has also been conducting yoga and medical camps at regular intervals under the supervision of its SP Shahnawaz Qasim for over 3,000 personnel in 60 police stations across the district, says K. Srinivas, the district president of the association.
(With additional reporting by R. Avadhani (Medak), P. Sridhar (Khammam) & K.M. Dayashankar (Karimnagar)