By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : The Indian armed forces will train over 4,000 junior commissioned officers (JCOs) as psychologists to battle ever-increasing stress and subsequent suicides among military personnel.
“We know that some of our personnel are stressed and there are several reasons behind it. There are around 60 psychiatrists in different armed forces hospitals and we are in the process of training over 4,000 psychological counsellors,” said Lieutenant-General Yogendra Singh, director general of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS).
“We will train our JCOs as psychological counsellors but they will do their regular jobs as well,” Singh told IANS.
He said after receiving training for 12 weeks each counsellor would be deployed in the high sensitive zones, mainly in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states.
“They will receive 12 weeks of training at six major armed forces hospitals, including Pune, Kolkata, Udhampur and Delhi. So far 46 JCOs have received training.
“We hope we will train all these people in two-three years’ time,” Singh added.
Officials said the JCOs-turned psychologists would “talk to our personnel and find out who needs medical intervention”.
“The training will equip them to know who can be healed through counselling and who needs medical intervention. Those in bad shape could be referred to the armed forces hospitals with psychiatric units,” said Lieutenant-General Saibal Mukherjee, director-general of Medical Services (Army).
There were 110 suicide cases in 2007 against 120 in 2006. In the last four years, the armed forces comprising the army, navy and air force) – which have a total strength of 1.5 million personnel – have reported 407 cases of suicides among its ranks.
Singh said recently two of their men committed suicide soon after they return from vacations.
“We (armed forces) have a huge strength and some of them are in tough conditions. But the stress level among our forces is less than that among our counterparts in several countries. Even civilians have a higher stress level.
“Recently two of our personnel committed suicide soon after they returned from holidays. Marital discord and family problems were the main reason behind the cases. What can we do about these?” he asked.
Singh also said that every fighting unit has a spiritual leader who talks to armed forces personnel and advises them on many personal matters. “We have found that many turn to them in times of crisis.”
Officials said spiritual gurus help soldiers redeem their dignity though religious rituals. “After they fall martyr, these religious gurus perform their last rites. Their religious dignity is valued by our force,” the official said.