The State government has informed the Madras High Court of having sanctioned ₹10 crore on June 11 to conduct physical and mental health programmes for one year in association with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) for the well-being of around 1.2 lakh police personnel in the State.
The money was sanctioned after the Director General of Police wrote a letter to the government conceding that “circumstances force them [policemen] to work round the clock without adequate rest and leave.” The DGP had also accepted that “some of them are addicted to alcohol and some commit suicide.”
A copy of the Government Order issued on June 11 was placed before Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate C.S. Rajalakshmi. The petitioner had sought a direction to consider her representation regarding the increasing number of police suicides.
However, Additional Advocate General P.H. Arvindh Pandian pointed out that the government had already taken serious note of the issue following a letter written to it by the DGP on April 6. The letter stated that police personnel face the risk of high blood pressure, insomnia, heart attack and mental disorder due to work pressure.
“As the police personnel are one of the first responders who are exposed to violence, emergencies, disasters, unstructured work schedule, overtime and negative time management, their stress level is higher than other professionals,’” the DGP said and stated that most of the police personnel lacked skills required to manage stress.
The DGP had invited Nimhans for a consultation and its Registrar K. Sekar explained the programmes that could be conducted for police personnel. A list of objectives as well as strategies for the programmes were also drawn and forwarded to the government for its approval.
The programmes would cover all seven Commissionerates, 31 districts in four zones (North, Central, West and South) and also the battalions and special units which altogether had a workforce of around 1.2 lakh.
It was decided that a behaviour sciences faculty comprising experts in psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychiatric social work, mental health education and yoga would be involved in conducting the stress management training programmes to be held across the State.
In case of unmarried personnel, two of their immediate family members would be considered for the third-day programme on yoga and enriching family life. The 358 trained ‘master trainers’ would act as the faculty and form the 120 trainers groups to conduct the programme as well as meet with the families and the children.