DEPRESSION CLAIMED MORE THAN 400 LIVES IN PARAMILITARY FORCES IN THREE YEARS

any psychological analysis of the candidate. Also, most of the personnel in the forces do not have the services of a full-time clinical psychologist, which clearly shows how serious the forces are about this issue. Personality evaluation of an individual is a must before you give combat facility to any person, because anyone with impulsiveness and lack of anger management can cause self harm or harm to their colleagues due to frustration or impulsive- ness.”

Dr Broota also said that difficult terrains and loneliness could also cause psychological imbalances in a person, leading to anger or frustration: “In certain areas, there is heavy snow or bright sunlight and the armed forces are subjected to such conditions for a very long time. So they could develop Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), due to which their levels of tolerance, anger and frustration are altered. At times, these personnel also slide into depression, making them take drastic steps.”

The BSF, which guards the borders and at times finds itself in the most difficult situations, has seen a very high number of suicides over the years. However, to combat such situations among its forces, the BSF has introduced a personality assessment test recently for all its personnel across the country, known as the “Wellness Quotient Test”.

According to sources within the BSF, to maintain the mental and physical health of the BSF personnel, and arrest incidents of depression and suicide, this test has been added to their annual medical check-up to enable early detection of any personnel suffering from personality imbalance or depression. This test is done through a questionnaire prepared by an expert, seeking information about their personal life, challenges and conditions.

The CISF spokesperson told The Sunday Guardian that their force is also working towards addressing such pressing issues as any loss of personnel is a great loss for the nation as well to for force.

“We have already introduced yoga as a compulsory practice among our force. Apart from this, we conduct sessions to cope with stress and have a strong and fast grievance redressal mechanism. We also conduct oneto-one interactions with the unit commander and the force. We are working hard to bring this issue to an end within our force,” the spokesperson said.

The response from the CRPF spokesperson could not be obtained until the time of going to press.