Lockdown effect: Surge in distress calls over finances, unemployment in Pune

PUNE: The helpline numbers of Connecting NGO Pune and BJ Medical College’s Mansamvad have seen a surge in the number of distress calls over financial matters and unemployment-related issues, especially after the lockdown was imposed in March.
According to experts working with the helplines for suicide prevention and counselling, distress calls related to finances and unemployment, personal relationships and domestic violence have increased. Connecting NGO programme coordinator Virendrasinh Pawar said that people in distress are reaching out to them over the phone as well as via e-mails.
“We have received over 5,000 calls from January 2019 to September 2020. Of the total, around 1,500 calls were made during the lockdown and more than 450 e-mails were received. Earlier, the calls were largely related to personal relationships among the youth. But, after the lockdown, we have observed that unemployment, financial issues, uncertainties and rising anxiety have topped the charts. There were calls about quarrels among family members in the first half of the lockdown,” he said, adding that life in the lockdown had a negative impact on almost all strata of the society.
Pawar stated that people manning the helpline had to ascertain the caller’s state of mind. “We have to listen to them and make sure to draw them out of their passive state of mind. The rising uncertainty due to the pandemic is creating a negative impact on people. However, these conditions are temporary and these too shall pass,” he claimed. Pawar said many callers contact them regularly or sometimes express themselves via e-mails giving them space to be vocal about their feelings.
Krishna Kadam, senior psychiatrist at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said that they had started the Mansamvad helpline on March 31 to allow citizens to talk about their distress and mental health issues due to the lockdown. “We have received over 2,000 calls ever since. The focus has been on unemployment and finances,” he said.