Coimbatore : Rural SP, Sujith Kumar Tuesday advocated for establishing the suicide prevention cell in the academic institutions, which he termed as the need of the hour.

Speaking after inaugurating the suicide prevention cell at a private college here, Sujith Kumar said that statistics reveal that suicide was the leading cause of death among the age group 15 -39 among both the sex in India in 2016.

The present statistics also show the increasing trend of suicides and there was a significant difference between suicides of among men and women in India.

The highest age- specific rates of suicide for men where among elderly men aged 75 years or older, while among women it was young women aged 15 to 29 and India accounted for over a third of the world’s annual female
suicides and nearly a fourth of male suicides, he pointed out.

Stating that road accident was the major cause for death but now suicide was the major cause, he said that reasons for suicide were silly, as in Salem, people are committing suicide because of illness, frustration, loss in business and love failures.

The sad news was that in rural areas suicide cases were not properly reported and the quantum of suicide rate in country required setting up of suicide prevention cells, Sujith Kumar said.