50% jawan suicides due to family issues, says CISF DG O P Singh

Force has constituted an all-jawans 'leave committee' to look into issues related to leaves

Family issues and disputes are reasons behind 50 per cent of jawan suicides and the CISF is making all-out efforts and thinking outside the box to prevent personnel from ending their lives, the CISF DG on Tuesday said.

The force has constituted an all-jawans 'leave committee' in every unit to look into issues related to leaves.

"You will find that there is stress in the force...All police, paramilitary and security forces. There are instances of fratricides and suicides. We want to find out ways to stem it.

"We have gone for professional studies and have found that in 50 per cent of such cases family disputes or problems is the reason. We are making all-out efforts to make our troops stress-free which includes practising yoga and other exercises. We are also deploying some out-of-the-box thinking in this direction," CISF Director General O P Singh said while interacting with reporters here.

There are psychological aspects involved and all officers in the force, which has a strength of 1.45 lakh personnel, have been instructed to be more interactive with the men and women under their command, he said.

"We know that the society is changing rapidly and such people (with problems) need to be spotted, segregated and counselled. We are undertaking a number of measures to reach out to anyone among us who is under stress or is facing any problems," he said.

We want to touch the lives of our personnel, he said, adding that clear directions have been issued to supervisory authorities to increasingly "mingle" with their troops and check on their problems and issues.

The DG said the issue of timely leave is a "big bone of contention" in all police and paramilitary forces and the situation in the CISF is same, with a deficiency in staff numbers and over-stressed work hours.

"Hence, we have come with the idea of constituting leave committees in all our units. The committee in Delhi Metro is doing well...This committee will ensure that troops prioritise their leave requirements among themselves," Singh added.

Elucidating on it, he said a jawan who needs leave to attend the wedding of his real brother will get priority over his colleague who requires the same to attend the marriage of his distant relative or friend.

"These are all case-to-case basis selections and this committee will work under the command of the unit commander and the members of the committee will be rotated on a monthly basis," he said.