Chennai: South India accounts for 47 per cent of total suicides in the country, according to a study conducted by a voluntary agency concentrating on suicide prevention.
The Union Territory of Pondicherry registered the highest number of suicides with 57 persons per lakh committing suicide every year, said founder of SNEHA, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar.
Kerala, which boasted of being the most literate state in the country, accounted for the highest number of suicides among the states (28.9 persons per lakh).
Of the four metros, Chennai recorded the highest suicide rates (19.3 persons per lakh) but Bangalore, the IT hub of the nation, beat Chennai in this record (25.9 persons per lakh).
Dr Lakshmi said that the rate of suicides in the country had increased from 6.7 per cent in 1975 to 10.4 per cent now.
On an average 1.10 lakh people commit suicide in the country and a majority of them were below 40 years of age, she said.
Of this, Tamil Nadu accounted for 11,000 suicides and Chennai alone reported 1200 suicides every year.
"South Indians have naturally been less aggressive than North Indians probably because of lesser invasions in the past. Moreover, the higher literacy rate in the South leads to a higher expectancy levels and indirectly to stress," said Dr Lakshmi.
Over 40 per cent of the suicide attempts were due to domestic problems, while two per cent were due to failure in examinations and love failure respectively, Dr Lakshmi said.
Announcing the extension of SNEHA's services round the clock from October 13, Dr Lakshmi said that need had arisen for a 24-hour suicide prevention service because of the growing demand for emotional support from the BPO sector.
Of the total number of calls received at SNEHA, at least 10 per cent were from BPO employees.
"The shift in family structure because of the sudden independence a BPO job offers to a 20-year old, the role reversal in the families and the exposure to a broader outlook towards life a BPO employee gets, which is not acceptable to the family - all these coupled with the stressful job and the physiological changes due to night shifts, make them suicide prone," she said.
BPO employees usually contacted SNEHA through e-mail as part of its 'befriending through e-mail' facility.
"Those contacting us via e-mail have been found to have more suicidal intentions and the risk of suicide in them was very high," she said.
To address the issue of increasing suicides, SNEHA had prepared a National framework, which would deal with the component of suicide prevention in relation with alcohol, domestic violence and stress at workplace.
"For a billion people, India has only 3,500 psychiatrists. The National plan also explores the means to utilise the services of faith healers and practitioners of alternate medicine in improving mental health," Dr Lakshmi said.
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