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Kolkata's pride, a suicide point?

KOLKATA APRIL 11. The statistics of persons derailed in their lives attempting to end their miseries on the tracks of the underground Metro Railway, Kolkata's pride, seems to indicate that it may be turning into a suicide point.

Seventynine persons have tried to end their lives jumping down on the tracks of the underground railway since its inception in 1984 and 36 of them (32 men and four women) died.

Out of the 79, 53 were in the age group of 20 to 50 years, nine below 20 and 17 above 50 years.

The ``vulnerable metro stations'' are Kalighat, Rabindra Sarobar, Netaji Bhavan, Belgachia and Esplande.

The maximum number of suicide attempts made in a year reported so far was 17 in 2001. This year, the number of attempts till this month is eight. The Metro authorities pleaded helplessness.

``We have used music therapy, allowed NGOs such as Anubhav, Calcutta Samaritans and Lifeline to put up glow signs at the stations, hold awareness camps and even let them perform skits on the platforms. Even then, we have been unable to check the rising graph of attempted suicide or suicide,'' a senior Metro rail official said.

``We have been able to bring about some change in people's attitudes, but a lot more needs to be done. Precautionary measures should be implemented on a war footing,'' said Paromita Mitra Bhowmik of Calcutta Samaritans.

— PTI

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