Last minute cramming, sleepless nights and anxiety about the future course of action, these are just few of the troubles that adolescents deal with during exams. And as the pressure mounts, a city group has now started a suicide helpline for students which promises to be very personal.
The idea began with Henrietta Decruz, a writer who incidentally was working on a movie script on the same subject suicide.
“Suicide has been very personal for me. I lost a cousin at 16 and one of my friends who had immense potential in life. It’s a life lost due to an impulsive decision,” says Herietta.
Although the initial plan was to spark off a campaign through the movie, the process was accelerated when her 18 year old son, studying in class XII now, received a text from his friend asking him for help.
It immediately struck us that this is the time when teenagers are under the most pressure. And with that pressure comes other dilemmas such as the career choices.
So on March eight, Henrietta sent out a mass SMS, “If you are feeling sad or feel like there is no hope and you’ve reached the end of the rope. Don’t give up. Send a message across to your friends saying CODE BLUE, it means, I need help, please stand by me and get me through. The name Code Blue came from the lowest of lows, when many can’t articulate what they feel.
Although it was a simple plan, there was immediately a problem, untrained help can make the problem worse. So we needed to get professionals on board.
But shortly after that text, Henrietta and her son Issac received, three calls in as many days. “Two calls from other cities. This is when we needed to call other people we knew in those cities. So now, we have touched base with friends who are trained counsellors in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi and even they are on board to boost this helpline,” adds Henrietta. In Hyderabad, to help expand their network, the duo have tied up with the help group, Youth Alive.
Milton Raj of the youth group says, “We have 25 counsellors on board to deal with the calls now. And most of these counsellors are young themselves so they will be able to put themselves in a position to deliver advice that will actually help.” Raj adds, “If someone is being abused, we will have to call the police and if someone has already hurt themselves, we would have to call for medical help. But otherwise, everything remains anonymous.”
While the need of the hour is to deal with exam pressure, the group also hopes to open the helpline up for other age groups once the season tides over. That way they will also have learned lessons from the hardest period of the year with the most vulnerable lot exams and teenagers. The helpline number is 9959595050. All one needs to do is SMS Code Blue to the number and help should arrive.
