MADURAI
Simple life with lesser needs and aspirations made the life of older generations free from stress, said Inspector General of Police (South Zone), K.P. Shanmuga Rajeswaran.
He was speaking at the inaugural function of the three-day Police Well-Being workshop for the first batch of 35 police personnel of Madurai rural district here on Friday.
Mr. Rajeswaran said that increased complexities in life in the present circumstances and uncertainties coupled with emotional imbalances led to stress that also affected the physical health of people.
“Blood pressure, diabetes, heart and kidney-related problems are caused by stress that affected the health,” he said.
“Everyone in this hall wants to make their children lead a socio-economic life that was one notch above themselves. This is creating stress for both the parents and the children,” he added.
Stating that people get many things in life not by choice but by chance, he said people should try to realise this to reduce stress. “Stress cannot be eradicated completely, but can be managed effectively,” he said.
Conflicts in personal and professional life were a major source of stress, especially for the police personnel. Work-life balance was important, he said.
Complaining that most of the police personnel have forgotten the importance of daily physical exercise once they complete their training, he said 20 minutes of physical exercise will help people manage the whole day effectively.
Registrar of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, K. Sekar, said that the different nature of job for the police stressed them.
“A policeman does different works on a day, like police station work in the morning, bandobust duty in the afternoon and post-mortem-related duty in the evening,” he said.
The training programme has been designed not only to teach the 1.25 lakh police personnel in the State to beat stress, but also their family members so that they can effectively support their breadwinners.
Master trainers from police personnel, along with counsellors from each district, are being given five-day training at NIMHANS in Bengaluru.
The trainers would then train the police personnel in batches. Forty exercises have been designed to make the police realise their stress, causes for it and how to handle them to come out of them, he said.
Superintendent of Police, N. Manivannan, said that the 2,114 police personnel in the district would get Well-Being training in 61 batches of 35 persons each. The last day of the three-day workshop would be for the family members of the police personnel.
“Take all the exercises seriously and try to come out of the stress not only for your own benefit, but also to teach them to other family members,” he told the trainees.
Additional Superintendents of Police, K.G. Narasimhavarman, Assistant Nodal Officer of the programme, M. Kannan, were among those who spoke.
