The Country's First Suicide Prevention Policy

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently announced the "National Suicide Prevention Strategy."
• It is the country's first of its kind, with time-bound action plans and cross-sector collaborations aimed at reducing suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
• The strategy is consistent with the World Health Organization's South East Asia Region Suicide Prevention Strategy. The Country's First Suicide Prevention Policy

More information on the policy

• The newly launched National Suicide Prevention Strategy is the country's first of its kind.
• The suicide prevention policy includes time-bound action plans and cross-sector collaborations to reduce suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
• The strategy aims to establish effective suicide surveillance mechanisms within three years, psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within five years, and
• Within the next eight years, all educational institutions will have a mental health curriculum.
• The policy calls for the development of guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, as well as the restriction of access to means of suicide.
• Support from the community and society:
• The emphasis is on strengthening community resilience and societal support for suicide prevention.
• In line with global strategy, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4 aims to reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by one-third through prevention and treatment, while also promoting mental health and well-being.
• The suicide rate is one indicator of this.
• While the strategy is consistent with the WHO's South East Asia Region Suicide Prevention Strategy, it promises to remain true to India's cultural and social milieu.

More on Suicide

What is suicide?

• Suicide occurs when people intentionally harm themselves in order to end their lives and die as a result.
• Suicide claims more than one lakh lives in India each year, and it is the leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29.
• Suicide rates increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 100,000 people between 2019 and 22.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently published the report "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India Report 2021." It provides the following records by category:

Daily Wager:

• Daily wage earners continued to be the most common profession among suicide victims in 2021, accounting for 42,004 suicides (25.6%).
• For the first time, the proportion of daily wagers dying by suicide has surpassed a quarter.
• The number of suicides in the United States increased by 7.17% between 2020 and 2021.
• During this time, however, the number of suicides in the daily wage group increased by 11.52%.

Farming Sector:

• In 2021, the overall share of "Persons engaged in the farming sector" among total recorded suicides was 6.6%.

Distribution by Profession:

• "self-employed persons" had the highest increase of 16.73%.
• The only group that saw a decrease in suicides was "unemployed persons," with the number falling by 12.38% from 15,652 in 2020 to 13,714 in 2021.

Suicide Motivations:

• Family Issues: 33.2% (other than marriage-related problems)
• Marriage-Related Issues: 4.8%
• Illness: 18.6%
• State: In terms of the number of suicides reported in 2021, Maharashtra led the country, followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

Brief Interventions in Treatments and Therapies

• Safety Planning: It has been shown that personalized safety planning can help reduce suicidal thoughts and actions.
• Follow-up phone calls: Studies have shown that at-risk patients who receive additional screening, a Safety Plan intervention, and a series of supportive phone calls have a lower risk of suicide.

Psychotherapies:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): It can assist people in learning new ways to cope with stressful situations.
• When suicidal thoughts arise, CBT assists individuals in recognizing their thought patterns and considering alternative actions.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT has been shown to reduce suicidal behavior in adolescents.

Initiatives of the Government of India

• 1982: National Mental Health Programme (NMHP):
• To ensure the availability and accessibility of basic mental health care for all in the near future, with a focus on the most vulnerable and underserved segments of the population.
• The Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 decriminalizes suicide attempts.
• It was passed in 2017, went into effect in May 2018, and replaced the 1987 Mental Health Act.
• To the delight of most Indian medical practitioners and mental health advocates, the act decriminalised suicide attempts in India.
• It also followed WHO guidelines for categorising mental illnesses.
• The most important provision in the act was "advanced directives," which allowed people with mental illnesses to choose their own treatment and appoint someone to be their representative.
• It also restricted and prohibited the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on minors, finally introducing measures to combat stigma in Indian society.
• Manodarpan Initiative: It is part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
• Its goal is to provide students with psychosocial support for their mental health and well-being.
• Kiran Helpline: The helpline is a huge step forward in suicide prevention and can provide support and crisis management.
• The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) will manage the helpline, which will provide early screening, first-aid, psychological support, distress management, mental well-being, and psychological crisis management.

Problems:

Focus is not up to par:

• According to a recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, 1.64 lakh people committed suicide in 2021
• This is 10% more than COVID deaths in India in 2020, and 6.8 times more than maternal deaths (23800) in 2020.
• Despite this, we have placed far more emphasis and effort on COVID protocols and maternal health than on suicide prevention.

Collaboration is required:

• Suicide is a complex issue that will necessitate cross-sector collaboration to address.
• According to the 2021 NCRB data, family issues (33.2%), unemployment/indebtedness/career problems (7.7%), and health concerns (18.6%) are some of the major causes.
• To work on prevention, we need the collaboration of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the MoHFW, among others.

The following are the requirements for effective implementation:

• The strategy should now be passed on to the states, who should develop locally relevant action plans before cascading to the district, primary health care, and community levels.
• As a public health priority, more efforts are now needed to prevent suicides.
• Suicide affects all segments of society, necessitating concerted and collaborative efforts from individuals and the community at large.

Norms to Prevent False Online Reviews

• The Department of Consumer Affairs recently announced new regulations to protect consumers from "false and misleading reviews."
• It is part of the Bureau of Indian Standards norms, which will go into effect on November 25.

Important Guidelines:

• E-commerce platforms will be required to voluntarily disclose paid customer reviews of products and services.
• The e-commerce company or restaurant must create a code of conduct, as well as the necessary terms and conditions for accessibility, and ensure that the content does not contain financial information.
• Identity: Reviews should not be misleading, and reviewers' identities should not be revealed without their permission.

Purchased evaluation:

• If a review is purchased or you are rewarding the person for writing the review, it must be clearly labelled as such.

Application:

• IS 19000:2022, the standard, will apply to all organisations that publish consumer reviews online. These will include product and service suppliers who collect customer feedback, third parties contracted by suppliers, and independent third parties.

The BIS distinguishes between solicited and unsolicited reviews:

• The person in charge of overseeing the review in any organisation is referred to as the review administrator.
• Solicited reviews are those that are requested by the supplier or review administrator.

Time frame:

• If a product receives a rating of 4-5 stars, the organisation must specify when the data was collected and whether an average was calculated.

The requirement for such a regulation:

• Online reviews play an important role in purchasing decisions, and consumers rely heavily on reviews posted on e-commerce platforms to see the opinion and experiences of users who have already purchased the good or service.

The move's significance:

• Increased transparency: The new online review guidelines are intended to increase transparency for both consumers and brands while also promoting information accuracy.
• Consumer protection: Regulations aim to protect consumers from fake and misleading reviews.
• Building Trust: Because e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience with no opportunity to physically view or examine the product, genuine, authentic, and trustworthy reviews are essential.
• Penalty: If they engage in unfair trade practises, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) or a consumer court may take penal action under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. The CCPA usually treats such cases as a "class," while the consumer commission treats them as individual cases.

Way Forward

• The government will first establish a voluntary compliance mechanism, and if the threat persists, it will make it mandatory.
• Some countries make rules, and some make legal provisions, but India is the first to create a standard.

About Bureau of Indian Standards

• It is India's National Standard Body. Since 2017, the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, has been in effect.
• It is in charge of the smooth development of standardization, marking, and quality certification of goods, as well as matters related to or incidental to these activities.
• BIS is headquartered in New Delhi. It operates five Regional Offices (ROs) in Kolkata (Eastern), Chennai (Southern), Mumbai (Western), Chandigarh (Northern), and Delhi (Central).
• Apart from benefiting consumers and industry, the BIS standards and certification scheme also supports various public policies, particularly in the areas of product safety, consumer protection, food safety, environmental protection, building and construction, and so on.

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