Fall in suicide rate in Pondy

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, MAY 6. The incidence of suicide is highest in the Union Territory of Pondicherry in the country as a whole. The statistics for 1997 reveal that there were fiftynine cases of suicide for every one lakh of population in the union territory.

Disclosing this at a press conference here recently, Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, vice-president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and member of WHO International Network for Suicide Prevention and Research said there should be several different reasons for a person to be driven to self-killing. The heartening feature now was that there had been a decline in the rate of suicide in Pondicherry when compared with figures pertaining to the years before 1997.

Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar was here to deliver an address at the seventh anniversary celebrations of `Maitreyi', a voluntary organisation which has been functioning here for the last seven years. A founder of `Sneha' in Chennai, Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar who is Consultant Psychiatrist said till sometime ago Kerala accounted for the highest rate of suicide. But now the dubious distinction had been wrested by the union territory of Pondicherry.Mr. S. Vaithianathan, former director `Maitreyi' said with a view to creating self-confidence and to ensure that suicidal tendency did not gain roots in the minds of the people the services of students of various schools, members of non- governmental organisations and the NSS had been enlisted to approach the people in certain segments.

Mr. S. Rajagopalan, Director, `Maitreyi' said the unit had received calls from different sections of which 70 per cent were over telephone, 20 per cent by personal visit and the remainder by letters. A national conference of `Befrienders India' was hosted by the organisation during 1999-2000. Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar said the International Association for Suicide Prevention would hold its conference in Chennai in September next year.

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