Over 1,000 calls received by 104 helpline

As of 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the 104 helpline served 1,570 students and parents who had called in and wanted counselling in connection with the class XII examination results.

The State’s 24-hour helpline had geared up for the results and had brought in volunteer psychologists too, in order to be able to deal with the influx of calls, said B. Prabhudoss, head, hospital relations and marketing, GVK EMRI, which operates the service.

“We found more boys from urban areas calling in, perhaps because of the availability of mobile phones. We are expecting more parents to call in on Wednesday. Most of the calls dealt with failures, marks not up to expectations and concerns about whether they would get into the course they wanted. Parents were worried about their children not getting government college seats,” said Mr. Prabhudoss.

One mother from Chennai called crying, as her daughter had consumed floor cleaner. “A medical officer spoke to her and a 108 ambulance was dispatched,” said Mr. Prabhudoss.

The 104 helpline had begun counselling services from January onwards, in three phases: preparatory before the exams, during the exams and before the results. The last phase consisted of counselling students to face the results with confidence, overcome their fear of failure and suicide prevention.

Sneha, a suicide prevention centre, got 25 calls on Tuesday. It also saw an increase in the number of emails received, a volunteer said.

“Students seem to prefer to communicate through email these days. We are also expecting more calls in the next few days,” he said.

Students in distress can call 104 or 044-26460050 round the clock or email help@snehaindia.org