NEW DELHI: With nearly 450 cases of suicides by armed personnel—of which 350 were from the Indian Army—in the last three years, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has made a short film to teach military personnel techniques to manage daily challenges, feel proud of their job and stay in high spirits. The film was made after year-long consultations with military doctors, psychologists and experts. It was released last week.
“The endeavour has been to bring out the cost benefit appraisal of military life,” said K Ramachandran, director of Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR), in a communication to the MoD. DIPR made the film, which provides an insight into restricting emotional thinking and how cognitive reappraisal is adopted by indicating the benefits in the acceptance of challenges, empathising, resource utilisation and emotional management. MoD summed up the reasons for suicides to occupational hazards, family and personal issues, domestic problems, perceived grievances, mental build, financial problems and inability to withstand stress. The film titled Self Help Aid for Managing Routine Challenges of Soldiers will be shown to all military formations.
The government has taken a number of steps to reduce the mental stress among the soldiers, which includes yoga and meditation as part of a unit’s routine.