Southern States
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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
`Materialism leading to spurt in suicides'
By Our Staff Reporter
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 1. Greed, over-ambition and materialism engendered by a consumerist culture are responsible for driving people to debt traps and suicides, social activist and former chairperson of the State Women's Commission, Sugathakumari, has said.
She was speaking at a seminar on `Mass Suicides and Preventive Strategies: A Gandhian Approach', organised by the Department of Public Relations and Gandhian organisations here on Friday.
Children today were too stressed and mentally disturbed, but mothers were responsible for driving them to be more competitive. Society was witnessing the dirty and dangerous sides of a moneyed culture and degradation of moral values, she said.
Ms. Sugathakumari pointed out that the lack of a proper support system was often what prompted people to take dire steps like ending their lives. Vigilance cells should be set up at the village-level, which should act as helpline centres for people in distress by offering support through counselling and by encouraging the community to be more communicative, to develop a good moral and spiritual foundation, she said.
Chandraprasad Sreedhar, faculty, IMG, said that stress tolerance levels were very low among today's children, brought up in the lap of luxury and who were used to having everything in life without much difficulty. They were willing to give up or even end their own lives, rather than face life's challenges.
The biggest problem faced by society today was that our children had no role models, Dr. Sreedhar pointed out. Today, parents had no time for children, to teach them the right and the wrong, to give them a good religious, spiritual or moral foundation, which was essential in modern life. With the break-up of joint families, children had become alien to the concept of sharing, he said.
Good communication between family members was essential and all members in a family should sit together at least twice a week and have open talks, he said.
Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, the chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission, S. Balaraman, pointed out that a good number of suicides in the State were committed by people with mental disorders. He said that psychiatrists, social workers and the community would have to intervene, form a support network and formulate creative strategies to prevent suicides.
M. K. George, head of Social Sciences, Loyola College, and the Director of Public Relations, X. Anil, also spoke on the occasion.
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