Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Benefits of Volunteering- Johnson Thomas
Benefits of Volunteering: This presentation is an attempt to help
understand how Volunteering can be beneficial to individuals in terms
of developing beneficial skill sets that could help sustain and
stabilise their work-life balance. Individual benefits to be derived
from doing volunteer work reach far beyond the volunteer act itself
and may linger long after the volunteer role is relinquished.
understand how Volunteering can be beneficial to individuals in terms
of developing beneficial skill sets that could help sustain and
stabilise their work-life balance. Individual benefits to be derived
from doing volunteer work reach far beyond the volunteer act itself
and may linger long after the volunteer role is relinquished.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Aasra in Scroll.in
http://scroll.in/article/government-moves-to-decriminalise-suicide-but-that-wont-prevent-people-who-try-to-take-their-own-lives-from-being-incarcerated/?id=655138
Government's move to decriminalise suicide is half-hearted
The Mental Health Bill says that suicide cannot be prosecuted. But it remains a criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code and allows for people who attempt to take their lives to be incarcerated in institutions.
Amendments to the Mental Health Care Bill were approved by the cabinet on Thursday, in an attempt to protect the rights of people suffering from mental illness. But experts have criticised its provisions relating to suicide, even though the proposed legislation claims to decriminalise the action. Unless the Indian Penal Code is also changed, they say, people who attempt to take their own lives can still be prosecuted.
“At the end of the day, suicide will still be a crime,” said Amba Salelkar, a lawyer and disability and mental health rights activist. “If suicide were truly being decriminalised, legislators would have removed it from the IPC itself.”
The bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha in the budget session in February. The original draft of the bill was filed in the Rajya Sabha in August 2013. A parliamentary committee on health and family welfare submitted their review of changes to the union cabinet.
At present, attempting to kill oneself is illegal under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, and can be punished by a year in prison. The Mental Health Care Bill says that notwithstanding the IPC, anyone attempting suicide “shall be presumed...to have severe stress at the time of attempting suicide and shall not be liable to prosecution and punishment."
It goes on to state that it is the government’s responsibility to help ensure that those who have survived a suicide bid do not attempt it again. This clear puts all those who attempt suicide under the health care provisions of the bill, one clause of which includes the right of the government to incarcerate people of unsound mind for up to three months against their will.
By retaining IPC legislation and classifying suicide as a mental illness, the bill effectively gives the government the right to incarcerate anyone in a mental institution if suspected of having attempted suicide, experts say.
“If suicide were truly being decriminalised, legislators would have removed it from the IPC itself,” said Salelkar. “At the end of the day, suicide will still be a crime. This is what makes me uncomfortable about the bill.”
Dr Bhargavi Davar, another mental health activist, added that the decision to cite the cause of suicide as “severe stress” is dangerous because it allows a much larger range of people to be classified as mentally ill. “Mental illness is defined so broadly, any person is liable to be brought under the bill,” she said. “Who in urban areas is not stressed? Will they also be deemed mentally ill?”
She said that the earlier draft of the bill left open the option for people had attempted suicide but did not have any official diagnosis of mental illness to go to court to prevent themselves from being incarcerated in a mental institution. “How do you prove to the court that someone is not stressed?” she asked.
Both Davar and Salelkar believe that the solution would be to change the IPC, and not mention suicide in the Mental Health Care Bill at all.
Not a deterrent
Most psychiatrists agree that criminalising suicide is illogical. According to them, the law has never served as a deterrent to people wanting to take their own lives. The rate of suicides inIndia has steadily risen in the past five years.
“It is a good move to decriminalise suicide,” said Dr NN Raju, secretary of the Indian Psychiatric Society. “Suicide is a move taken to end suffering. They think it is theONLY OPTION
left to them. Society has an obligation to help them out, rather than labelling them as criminals.”
Dr Kedarnand Banerjee of the National Institute of Behavioural Sciences concurred. “Suicidal people are least bothered about legislation,” he said. “When the thought comes, it comes. Thinking about the law never stopped anyone from attempting suicide.”
While they welcomed the apparent decriminalisation of suicide, they too were not pleased with its being described as a mental illness.
Labelling suicide as a mental illness is inaccurate, according to Raju. “While severe stress doesn’t necessarily cause suicide, calling somebody mentally ill is not correct either,” he said. “Someone who tries to commit suicide may need the help of mental health professionals, certainly, but trying to commit suicide is not necessarily the result of inherent mental instability.”
According to National Crime Records Bureau figures, which are most likely under-representative, India’s rate of suicide, 11.2 per 100,000 in 2012, is far lower than the global rate of 16 per 100,000.
Within India, nuances emerge. More men kill themselves than women. According to an NCRB report, men kill themselves for economic reasons, while women kill themselves for personal reasons. Housewives formed 18.2 per cent of the total number of suicide attempts in 2012. This is more than over half of the women who were reported to have killed themselves in that year.
The top five specified occupations of those who committed suicide from 2001 to 2012 included housewives, farmers, those in private service, the unemployed and self-employed. These constitute 54 per cent of a total of 1.4 million people who killed themselves during this decade.
“It is necessary to understand that suicide is not an event,” said Johnson Thomas, who works with Mumbai-based suicide helpline Aasra. “It is not a one-time process. People go through different stages of stress and when it comes to a head, that is when they commit suicide.” Thomas, however, believes that the bill will be useful as it will force the government to take the responsibility of therapy after a failed suicide attempt, which is their stated intention.
Dangers of the bill
The social and political consequences of including suicide in the Mental Health Care Bill extend beyond just wrongful incarceration if the person survives, according to Salelkar. For instance, if a housewife were to survive a suicide attempt, they will be classified as mentally unstable and could have custody of their children taken away from them under the Juvenile Justice Act.
There are also cases in which pressure from in-laws for dowry is a pressing cause of women committing suicide. “When the case comes to trial, because she is deemed to be mentally ill, her evidence could become shaky,” said Salelkar. “Even if she doesn’t survive, the fact that suicide is filed under the Mental Health Care Act means that the family that might have abetted the suicide has someMORE ROOM to wiggle out of being convicted.”
Political acts of protest are also likely to be prosecuted as before. Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger strike for ten years now. Each year, she is released from hospital custody for one day, then re-arrested under section 309 of the IPC. The government can choose to argue that Sharmila is not under severe stress. Since suicide has not been decriminalised, the government will not be obliged to release her from custody.
With this misguided attempt to help suicide survivors, experts say, the government has instead laid the ground open for them to be persecuted further.
“At the end of the day, suicide will still be a crime,” said Amba Salelkar, a lawyer and disability and mental health rights activist. “If suicide were truly being decriminalised, legislators would have removed it from the IPC itself.”
The bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha in the budget session in February. The original draft of the bill was filed in the Rajya Sabha in August 2013. A parliamentary committee on health and family welfare submitted their review of changes to the union cabinet.
At present, attempting to kill oneself is illegal under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, and can be punished by a year in prison. The Mental Health Care Bill says that notwithstanding the IPC, anyone attempting suicide “shall be presumed...to have severe stress at the time of attempting suicide and shall not be liable to prosecution and punishment."
It goes on to state that it is the government’s responsibility to help ensure that those who have survived a suicide bid do not attempt it again. This clear puts all those who attempt suicide under the health care provisions of the bill, one clause of which includes the right of the government to incarcerate people of unsound mind for up to three months against their will.
By retaining IPC legislation and classifying suicide as a mental illness, the bill effectively gives the government the right to incarcerate anyone in a mental institution if suspected of having attempted suicide, experts say.
“If suicide were truly being decriminalised, legislators would have removed it from the IPC itself,” said Salelkar. “At the end of the day, suicide will still be a crime. This is what makes me uncomfortable about the bill.”
Dr Bhargavi Davar, another mental health activist, added that the decision to cite the cause of suicide as “severe stress” is dangerous because it allows a much larger range of people to be classified as mentally ill. “Mental illness is defined so broadly, any person is liable to be brought under the bill,” she said. “Who in urban areas is not stressed? Will they also be deemed mentally ill?”
She said that the earlier draft of the bill left open the option for people had attempted suicide but did not have any official diagnosis of mental illness to go to court to prevent themselves from being incarcerated in a mental institution. “How do you prove to the court that someone is not stressed?” she asked.
Both Davar and Salelkar believe that the solution would be to change the IPC, and not mention suicide in the Mental Health Care Bill at all.
Not a deterrent
Most psychiatrists agree that criminalising suicide is illogical. According to them, the law has never served as a deterrent to people wanting to take their own lives. The rate of suicides inIndia has steadily risen in the past five years.
“It is a good move to decriminalise suicide,” said Dr NN Raju, secretary of the Indian Psychiatric Society. “Suicide is a move taken to end suffering. They think it is theONLY OPTION
left to them. Society has an obligation to help them out, rather than labelling them as criminals.”Dr Kedarnand Banerjee of the National Institute of Behavioural Sciences concurred. “Suicidal people are least bothered about legislation,” he said. “When the thought comes, it comes. Thinking about the law never stopped anyone from attempting suicide.”
While they welcomed the apparent decriminalisation of suicide, they too were not pleased with its being described as a mental illness.
Labelling suicide as a mental illness is inaccurate, according to Raju. “While severe stress doesn’t necessarily cause suicide, calling somebody mentally ill is not correct either,” he said. “Someone who tries to commit suicide may need the help of mental health professionals, certainly, but trying to commit suicide is not necessarily the result of inherent mental instability.”
According to National Crime Records Bureau figures, which are most likely under-representative, India’s rate of suicide, 11.2 per 100,000 in 2012, is far lower than the global rate of 16 per 100,000.
Within India, nuances emerge. More men kill themselves than women. According to an NCRB report, men kill themselves for economic reasons, while women kill themselves for personal reasons. Housewives formed 18.2 per cent of the total number of suicide attempts in 2012. This is more than over half of the women who were reported to have killed themselves in that year.
The top five specified occupations of those who committed suicide from 2001 to 2012 included housewives, farmers, those in private service, the unemployed and self-employed. These constitute 54 per cent of a total of 1.4 million people who killed themselves during this decade.
“It is necessary to understand that suicide is not an event,” said Johnson Thomas, who works with Mumbai-based suicide helpline Aasra. “It is not a one-time process. People go through different stages of stress and when it comes to a head, that is when they commit suicide.” Thomas, however, believes that the bill will be useful as it will force the government to take the responsibility of therapy after a failed suicide attempt, which is their stated intention.
Dangers of the bill
The social and political consequences of including suicide in the Mental Health Care Bill extend beyond just wrongful incarceration if the person survives, according to Salelkar. For instance, if a housewife were to survive a suicide attempt, they will be classified as mentally unstable and could have custody of their children taken away from them under the Juvenile Justice Act.
There are also cases in which pressure from in-laws for dowry is a pressing cause of women committing suicide. “When the case comes to trial, because she is deemed to be mentally ill, her evidence could become shaky,” said Salelkar. “Even if she doesn’t survive, the fact that suicide is filed under the Mental Health Care Act means that the family that might have abetted the suicide has someMORE ROOM
to wiggle out of being convicted.”Political acts of protest are also likely to be prosecuted as before. Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger strike for ten years now. Each year, she is released from hospital custody for one day, then re-arrested under section 309 of the IPC. The government can choose to argue that Sharmila is not under severe stress. Since suicide has not been decriminalised, the government will not be obliged to release her from custody.
With this misguided attempt to help suicide survivors, experts say, the government has instead laid the ground open for them to be persecuted further.
We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in
AASRA 'Suicide prevention' Training for other helplines
5 - TRAINING AND CONTINUOUS SKILL
UPGRADATION
Following the recommendations of the experts who
participated in the National level Consultative Meeting,
the counsellors employed at iCALL's were put through a
rigorous twelve day training programme from 6th August
2012 to 18th August 2012, prior to the commencement of
the helpline services. The focus of the training was both
perspective building as well as skills training. The topics
covered were as follows:
1. Understanding Gender – Mithun Sarvagod
(Akshara Foundation)
2. Family in Crisis – Dr. Geeta Joshi (IPH)
3. Communication Skills – Adrian Rosario
4. Violence Against Women – Divya Taneja (RCI –
VAW, TISS)
5. Counselling Skills – Ms. Akanksha & Ms. Jill
(Ummeed)
6. Suicide – Johnson Thomas (Aasara)
7. Sexuality – Prabha Nagaraj (TARSHI)
8. Alternate Sexuality – Kavita Nair (Humsafar
21
Trust) & Shruti Chakravarty (LABIA)
9. Understanding Law – Adv. GH Khan
10. Addiction – Mr. Madhav & Mr. Inderjeet
(Muktangan)
11. Helpline Counselling – Pratibha Nagaraj
(TARSHI) & Sulabha Narayan (IPH, Maitra
Helpline)
as abridged from TISS iCall's annual report 2012-13
as abridged from TISS iCall's annual report 2012-13
Aasra in the BBC news
Alarm at Mumbai's teenage suicide trend | |||||||
 
Sharadashram Vidyamandir school has been rocked by Shushant Patil's death
A writer once said that more than one soul dies in a suicide.
It seems so in Neha Sawant's home. The atmosphere in the tiny flat in Mumbai has been lifeless since the 11-year-old was found hanging from her apartment window.
It has been weeks but her parents are still in deep shock. They look dazed and sleep-deprived.
Neha's distraught grandmother said in a broken voice: "Our brains are not working. We still cannot believe it."
Neha, at 11, must be one of the youngest in Mumbai to commit suicide. Figures suggest that more and more teenagers in India's financial hub are killing themselves.
Dizzying
Inexplicably, teenage suicides have become an almost daily occurrence in Maharashtra - one of India's most developed states - and its capital Mumbai (Bombay).
The toll of teenage suicides from the beginning of the year until 26 January 2010 stood at 32, which is more than one a day.
While there are no comparative figures for the same period in 2009, there is a consensus among the concerned authorities in Mumbai that teenage suicides are spiralling out of control.
There is also a general agreement between psychologists and teachers that the main reason for the high number of teenagers taking their own lives is the increasing pressure on children to perform well in exams.
The scale of this largely preventable problem is dizzying - both in India with its billion-plus people and particularly in the state of in Maharashtra.
More than 100,000 people commit suicide in India every year and three people a day take their own lives in Mumbai.
Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among those aged between 15 and 35 years and has a devastating psychological, social and financial impact on families and friends.
'Needless toll'
World Health Organisation Assistant Director-General Catherine Le Gals-Camus points out more people die from suicide around the world than from all homicides and wars combined.
"There is an urgent need for co-ordinated and intensified global action to prevent this needless toll. For every suicide death there are scores of family and friends whose lives are devastated emotionally, socially and economically," she says.
In Mumbai the authorities are so alarmed by the scale of the problem that they have began a campaign, Life is Beautiful, which aims to help students cope with academic pressure.
Psychologists visit government schools in Mumbai once a week to train teachers dealing with students' problems.
Sharadashram Vidyamandir school boasts illustrious alumni such as cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli. It has been holding parent-teacher assemblies where parents can receive tips on tackling the pressures children face.
And yet such sessions could not prevent 12-year-old Shushant Patil's death. He was found hanging in the school toilet on 5 January.
Mangala Kulkarni is the principal of the girls' section of the school. She says that ultimately families need to be more proactive when it comes to stopping students from feeling stressed.
"The children don't realise they have more avenues than academic successes. They need to be made to realise this by their families from childhood," she said.
Blockbuster
A helpline in Mumbai, called Aasra, has been operating for several years to tackle the problem.
The director of the helpline, Johnson Thomas, says the problems today's children face are manifold: "They have peer pressure, they have communication problems with their parents, broken relationships, academic pressure and fear of failure," he says.
The home ministry estimates that for every teenage suicide in Mumbai there are 13 failed attempts.
One theory behind the recent rise is the influence of a recently released Bollywood blockbuster, Three Idiots, which has a scene where an engineering student is shown committing suicide after a mediocre exam result.
The film's impact has been debated and scrutinised in prime time television shows, with many directly blaming it for adding to the problem.
But Mumbai clinical psychologist Rhea Timbekar argues that it would be wrong to blame the film, which she says strives to explain that parents should not put too much pressure on their children.
Ms Timbekar says that she recently met a child who had not eaten for four days.
The child's parents said they were upset with him because he only got 89% in exams and stood third in the class, compared to coming first in previous years.
"Such parents need to be counselled," she asserts.
Ms Timbekar said that another explanation for the high teenage suicide rate was "copycat suicides" where children read about suicides in newspapers and decide to do the same thing themselves.
'Extreme steps'
Dilip Panicker, an eminent psychologist in Mumbai, says that pressure of exams is alone is too simplistic an explanation.
"At one level school pressures and expectations from parents are a valid reason," he says, "but that's always been there.
"In fact, parents used to beat up their kids in our time. What's changed is that today children are more aware, they have more exposure. They are more independent. So they blame themselves for failures and take extreme steps."
Psychologists also argue that the definition of a teenager needs to be revised in 2010.
"Today's 11-year-olds are the new teens. What we did at the ages of 14 and 15 children can do at 11 today," says Rhea Timbekar.
She demolishes the theory that children are more likely to be spontaneous in committing suicide, as opposed to adults who start with an idea, proceed with a plan and end with action.
"A child doesn't just wake up in the morning and says I will commit suicide today," she argues. "Something has gone amiss in their lives quite early on and suicides are a manifestation of that."
The breakdown of India's traditional family system is also being blamed for the problem. In a city like Mumbai - where it is common for both parents to work - children tend to become reclusive and watch too much television.
Dilip Panicker argues that there is a simple solution.
"If parents love their children unconditionally, with all their successes and failures, the problem would be greatly alleviated."
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ONE-MINUTE WORLD NEWS
Something has gone amiss in [children's] lives quite early and suicides are a manifestation of that 
DOCC: Heroes Speak- S P Jain Institute of Management and Research
DOCC: Heroes Speak Jan 7 , 2012
The Centre for Development of Corporate Citizenship (CDOCC), initiated a yet another inspiring event “Heroes Speak”. Heroes Speak attempted to unleash the immensely impactful work of four eminent speakers who are all heroes when it comes to working for the higher needs of the society. The first hero was the only Indian 2010 CNN Hero, Mr. Narayanan Krishnan, from Akshaya Trust. Narayayan shared his experience on how he quit his job as a leading chef at Taj Hotels and began supplying meals to the homeless in Madurai. Narayanan's speech was so moving that it scored him a standing ovation. Next, was Mr. Johnson Thomas, who is Director of an NGO AASRA. AASRA works in the area of mental health providing emotional support, unbiased caring through a helpline service and walkin center. Mr. Johnson spoke on the current issues which lead to suicides and how those could be tamed down with stress management training. Another member from AASRA was Mr. Atish Mukhopadhyaya. Atish is an alumnus of SPJIMR and now is a principal at Tata Strategic Management Group. Atish is actively involved in Corporate Social Projects and aids in projects of AASRA. He spoke in detail about the entire DOCC program for PGDM students and how it marshaled him to give back to the society. The last speaker was a recipient of CNN-IBN's Annual Real Heroes Awards 2011, Prof. Sandeep Desai. Sandeep founded Shloka Missionaries in 2001with an objective to work for education in the rural schools. He shared his story of how he travels everyday from Churchgate Station to Borivali, asking local train commuters for donation for Shloka Missionaries.
The Centre for Development of Corporate Citizenship (CDOCC), initiated a yet another inspiring event “Heroes Speak”. Heroes Speak attempted to unleash the immensely impactful work of four eminent speakers who are all heroes when it comes to working for the higher needs of the society. The first hero was the only Indian 2010 CNN Hero, Mr. Narayanan Krishnan, from Akshaya Trust. Narayayan shared his experience on how he quit his job as a leading chef at Taj Hotels and began supplying meals to the homeless in Madurai. Narayanan's speech was so moving that it scored him a standing ovation. Next, was Mr. Johnson Thomas, who is Director of an NGO AASRA. AASRA works in the area of mental health providing emotional support, unbiased caring through a helpline service and walkin center. Mr. Johnson spoke on the current issues which lead to suicides and how those could be tamed down with stress management training. Another member from AASRA was Mr. Atish Mukhopadhyaya. Atish is an alumnus of SPJIMR and now is a principal at Tata Strategic Management Group. Atish is actively involved in Corporate Social Projects and aids in projects of AASRA. He spoke in detail about the entire DOCC program for PGDM students and how it marshaled him to give back to the society. The last speaker was a recipient of CNN-IBN's Annual Real Heroes Awards 2011, Prof. Sandeep Desai. Sandeep founded Shloka Missionaries in 2001with an objective to work for education in the rural schools. He shared his story of how he travels everyday from Churchgate Station to Borivali, asking local train commuters for donation for Shloka Missionaries.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Celebrating Dosti and Democracy: Sabeen Mahmud
Celebrating Dosti and Democracy: Sabeen Mahmud
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