Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): The announcement of a National Suicide Prevention Strategy by the Centre may force Madhya Pradesh Government to abandon its proposed Suicide Prevention Policy.
A task force constituted by the state government was in the process of making recommendations for formulation of a state Suicide Prevention Policy, when, the Centre, on November 21, came out with a national strategy.
The state government may adopt the Central policy or it may go for improvisations and additions to the national policy. “The best and easiest option would be to adopt the Central policy. However, we may also go for amending it to suit local requirements,” director, medical education, Dr Jiten Shukla told Free Press.
On October 9 this year, the medical education minister Vishvas Sarang had announced that Madhya Pradesh will be the first State in the country to draft a suicide prevention strategy and the government had formed a task force for it. The task force comprises a range of subject experts such as psychiatrists, legal experts, researchers, academics and social workers. Six sub-committees were formed to analyse the causative and preventive strategies and the task force was mandated to submit its report in two months. Mumbai-based Dr Harish Shetty and Dr D Vijay Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of the National Law Institute University, Bhopal were among the members of the committee.
The meetings of the sub-committees are being held, Dr Shukla added. “Health is a state subject and so the state government has every right to improvise the national policy through modifications or additions,” a source said.
18 suicides per hour: After road accidents, suicides are the second biggest cause of death in the 15-50 years age group, the most productive section of the population. According to NCRB, 1.64 lakh persons died by suicide, which means an average of 450 deaths per day in 2021. Eighteen persons, on an average, end their own lives every hour in the country.
