The local chapters of Befrienders India, the nodal body for coordinating the activities of national helplines working towards suicide prevention, in Kerala are all set to paint social media yellow on World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday.
The virtual marathon, Go Yellow Kerala, assumes added significance in the wake of the latest statistics on suicide published by the National Crime Records Bureau that denoted an uptick in the number of cases in Kerala. The State accounted for 6.10% of the total number of suicides in the country.
“Breaking the declining trend since the early 2000s, the number of suicides in the State has increased from 8,200 to 8,500. It is likely to go up next year, considering the economic and emotional distress caused by the pandemic,” said Rajesh R. Pillai, president, Befrienders India.
The organisation used to conduct physical activities on World Suicide Prevention Day and create awareness about the scourge. However, the raging pandemic has put paid to any such plan this year, compelling Befrienders India to take the campaign online.
“The yellow ribbon movement has come to signify the campaign for suicide prevention across the world and hence the concept Go Yellow Kerala,” Mr. Pillai said. It seeks everybody and anybody from friends, families, relatives, or colleagues to put on something yellow, from ribbon, tikka, bindi, shirt, skirt, sari, bangles, or bands in solidarity with the cause.
People can upload their minute-long videos in yellow in social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and urge their followers or friends on those platforms to follow suit to spread the message of suicide prevention. The videos — in the form of poems, paintings, songs, or anything matching the interests of participants — could be tagged with their friends and Befrienders India Facebook page.
“The idea is to turn the social media yellow on the day in generating awareness about suicide prevention and encouraging people to talk about it, so as as to strip it of its stigma and avoid it being swept under the carpet as a taboo subject,” said Mr. Pillai.
Befrienders India has five centres in Kerala — Kochi, Paravur, Thodupuzha, Kozhikode, and Thiruvananthapuram
(Helpline for suicide prevention – 0484-2540530)