In a first Indian Govt Announces Strategy for Suicide Prevention

Sakshi Education

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled the National Suicide Prevention Strategy — the first-of-its-kind policy formulated by the government to prevent suicides as a public health priority.
According to the ministry, the policy that will set the stage for promotion of mental health and prevention of suicides in the coming decade.
The goal of the strategy is to reduce suicide mortality in the country by 10 per cent by 2023. The strategy provides a framework for multiple stakeholders to implement activities for prevention of suicides in the country.
According to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released in August, 1.64 lakh people died by suicide in 2021 — an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2020. This is 10 per cent higher than the COVID deaths (1.48 lakh) in India in 2020, and 6.8 times the maternal deaths (23,800) in the same year.
The NCRB report also stated that more than 1,00,000 people die by suicide in the country every year. A total of 25,891 suicides were reported in the 53 megacities of the country during 2021, with the highest in Delhi.

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