New Delhi: Director General of CRPF Kuldiep Singh said that due to mental stress, ten CRPF personnel have died by suicide since three months.

Addressing media persons, Mr. Singh said that “We are taking various steps to address mental stress including organizing Chaupal where personal share their problem and we try to solve them”, he said.

If we are unable to solve it then we take it to the professionals, Mr. Singh said and added that under financial assistance risk fund, ex gratia for personal martyred in action has been increased to Rs. 30 lakhs from Rs. 20 lakhs.

For all other cases, the ex gratia has been increased to Rs. 20 lakhs from Rs. 15 lakhs, he said.

“It is not as if the situation is out of hand. After the abrogation of Article 370, the incidents of stone-pelting are almost nill. There is a decrease in the infiltration of foreign terrorists and attacks”, Mr. Singh said while referring on the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir

“A total of 41 VIPs were provided security cover by the CRPF during recently concluded Assembly elections in five states. The security of 27 protectees have been withdrawn post-elections”, he added.

Suicide rate is increases among CRPF personals  

However, the recent data reveals that there has been a 55 per cent increase in the number of suicides among Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel over the last five years.

In 2020, as on 17 November, there had been 45 cases of suicides in the CRPF, including a trooper who shot himself with his service rifle in the Wadodara area of Sopore, Kashmir, earlier this week. The Print reported.

The Print report stated that the number of suicides among CRPF personnel stood at 29 in 2016, according to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which handles the affairs of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). In 2017, 2018 and 2019, the numbers were 38, 36 and 42, respectively.

Of the 45 suicides in 2020, 13 took place in Jammu & Kashmir, seven in the Northeast, 10 in areas affected by Left-wing extremism (LWE), and 15 in other parts of the country.

Officially, the government has identified “personal and domestic problems” as the main reasons behind the suicides.

In 2018, responding to a question in Parliament about suicides in the CAPFs, then Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had said, “The causative factors in most of the cases were found to be generally the personal and domestic problems, like marital discord, personal enmity, mental illness, depression etc.”