BENGALURU: Major reasons for suicidal tendencies among Indian employees are marital discord and relationships, according to a recent study. The analysis by 1to1help.net, a counselling company, is based on observations of 51,300 employees working in MNCs and large Indian companies across 30 cities in the past six years.
1to1help.net, based in Bengaluru, provides counselling services to companies as well as individuals. The report states that 1,700 people had suicidal thoughts stemming from marital and relationship issues followed by individual factors and work-related issues.
It also found that suicide was among the top 10 causes of death. It is most prevalent among individuals aged between 20 and 34, mostly among women, the study says.
“Every day, 1to1help.net counsels three to five people who have suicidal thoughts. There is hardly any community or support service for suicide prevention. Access to care for mental illnesses associated with suicide and depression is restricted,” Karuna Baskar, director of 1to1help.net, said.
She presented her paper, which was based on counselling cases accessed through 1to1help.net’s Employee Assessment Programme (EAP), a comprehensive corporate counselling programme. Karuna said, “Depression levels and suicidal tendencies are prevalent in the younger generation as they face new challenges with reduced family support, often in a new geography and are exposed to a very different work environment. In many cases, the current generation is brought up in a very protective environment. They may have also hitherto had restricted opportunities for relationships, and so are unprepared for the type of situations they are exposed to in the world of work.”