Stakeholders mull plan to reduce suicide, teen pregnancy

AMPATI, March 13: The stakeholders of South West Garo Hills, including the religious leaders, NGOs, community leaders, district officials, police and officials of the Medical fraternity came together at a workshop at Ampati on Monday to discuss the serious issue of rising suicide cases and teenage pregnancy in the district and work out strategies and interventions to reduce the problem.
The day-long workshop themed “Break the Silence, Fill the Gap”, was organised in a collaborative approach by the District Health Society under National Health Mission at AFHC-cum-multi facility centre, Chengkompara, Ampati.
Delivering the keynote address, Deputy Commissioner in-charge, AVD Shira, while sharing her experiences relating to these issues, said it was every stakeholder’s duty as parents and members of the community to find the root cause of the problem and check the menace, adding that “this workshop would help us introspect and see what contribution we can give to make our society a better and safer place for our children.”
Participating in the workshop, the District Police Chief, V Kumar, in his address, laid stress on the importance of mental health care, identifying the problem and proper support system for families dealing with the problem, among others to tackle the issue, while Chief Judicial Magistrate, District & Sessions Court, Ampati, NM Sangma highlighting on various forms of sexual assault under POCSO Act and teenage pregnancy also shared her experiences having dealt with number of such cases.
One of the main resource persons during the workshop, Dr BS Sangma, MD, Psychiatrist, Tura Civil Hospital, said that suicide is a serious public health issue and gave a detailed statistics of suicide cases in the state and the district in particular, the causes, warning signs, risk factors and protective factors to prevent suicide and intervention and management of the problem, among others and also made his contributions to strategise and plan for reducing suicide and teen pregnancy in the district.
District Surveillance Officer-cum-Nodal Officer for Mental Health Programme, SWGH, Dr LCK Sangma gave a detailed statistics of suicide cases registered in the district, while DCPO, T Marak, gave a brief presentation on the number of registered teenage pregnancy and their follow up action and interventions for teen pregnancies due to sexual assault.
Later, during the participatory session for developing the District Action Plan, numerous views and ideas were chipped in by participants including officials drawn from various departments, church leaders, NGOs and the police, facilitated by DMO, Dr Lydia Marak , DMCHO Dr Noreen Sangma, SDMHO, Dr S Hajong and DPM-NHM among others.