“There are at least 300 to 400 suicides in Madurai each year. This is higher than the total number of murders – about 25 – and road accidents – 215 to 220. Though there is a lot of awareness generation on road safety, there is not much discussion on suicide prevention,” said Commissioner of Police S. Davidson Devasirvatham on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a training camp on suicide prevention by SPEAK, a wing of M.S. Chellamuthu Trust, at The American College on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Week.
Stating that depression was increasing in people, he said suicidal thoughts affected both introverts, who suppressed their emotions, and extroverts, who were broken by failures.
Mr. Devasirvatham elaborated on four types of suicides explained by French sociologist Emile Durkheim – egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic. He said society’s complex nature caused major interpersonal relationship problems that further ruined the mental health of the people. The other major causes of suicide included love failure, failure in exams, dowry harassment and debts, he added.
“More organisations need to come forward to address the issue and sensitise the public to find solutions,” he said.
C. Ramasubramanian, founder, M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, Nandini Murali, Director, SPEAK, and M. Davamani Christober, Principal of The American College, stressed the need for creating more awareness of the topic and keeping good mental health.
The people should speak out while facing problems and not end their lives, said Dr. Ramasubramanian.
