Mounting debts and travel bans are among the main concerns raised by expatriates reaching out to a suicide hotline in Bahrain.
Details emerged after yet another man took his own life on Sunday night, the second expat suicide in the space of two days in the country.
Community volunteers told the GDN that majority of the people calling the helplines set up by the Indian Community Relief Fund (ICRF) were seeking financial and legal assistance.
They have also expressed their “helplessness” at the rising number of suicides in the country, after Baiju Mohamed Salim, a 51-year-old Indian, was found hanging inside his accommodation in Manama on Sunday night.
Another 42-year-old Indian, Thekkadavan Valsalan, hung himself in his home in Hamad Town on Saturday night.
This brings the number of reported suicides in the country to a total of 29 so far this year, of which 19 were Indian nationals.
This compares with 16 confirmed suicides among expatriates in 2017, a figure that rose to 37 in 2018.
“We get an average of two calls a day, which are not specifically related to suicide tendencies, but almost all the calls are related to financial stress,” said ICRF vice-chairman Dr Babu Ramachandran.
“People are under heavy debts and some of them are on travel ban – one person said he has a debt of BD8,000 and is under a travel ban, making him unable to go home or to find work.
“They ask us directly if there is any way to get help, which is not within our hands.
“We also get calls about family issues and they ask us for counselling.
“All these could be or not be reasons that could force one to think of ending their life, but what can we do?
“We are happy that people are at least reaching out and we hope to see more quantified success in the future which is reducing the number of suicides.”
Dr Ramachandran also heads the ICRF’s Listen, Involve, Foster, Engage (LIFE) initiative, which aims to identify and provide counselling to high-risk cases, under which the suicide helplines were introduced last year.
ICRF chairman Aruldas Thomas also pledged to continue efforts to combat the alarming trend of suicides among mostly Indian expatriates in the country.
“The ICRF team is doing its best to reach out to people to tell them suicide is not a solution for any problem,” he said.
Counselling
“We are talking to everyone possible on how we can, together, find solutions, but if people think negatively what can we do?
“At the moment, we have the hotlines, we distribute flyers in all languages, and we organise gatherings for workers.
“We also intend to train more (volunteers) for the hotlines.”
ICRF operates two suicide helplines (38415171/35990990), while other suicide hotlines include 35680258 and 38024189 by Pravasi (Expatriates) Guidance Forum; 33882835 and 38459422 by Palisha Virudha Samithi (Committee Against Interest) and 33421660 and 36253753 by the Nepali Club.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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