CRPF ropes in Art of Living to check suicides by jawans

Srinagar, Jan 11: CRPF jawan Lakshman Prasad Yadav feels relaxed and at ''peace'' after a session of yoga, started by the para-military force for its stressed-out personnel.

Alarmed by the increasing incidents of suicide among Army troops and other security personnel, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) decided to start stress management classes for its jawans.

The suicides are attributed to stress and psychological disorders, which in turn reportedly come with personal and family problems such as marital discord, infidelity, long separation, medical problems, depression and property issues as well as organisational factors.

Poor man-management and commanders' preoccupation with operational matters at the cost of administrative issues and not granting leave on time, discourteous, inhuman and injudicious conduct of senior officers towards subordinates; discriminatory and partisan role of officers are also to be blamed in some cases.

The CRPF has sought the services of the Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to serving society by strengthening the individual.

The NGO, founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, offers programmes that eliminate stress, create a sense of belongingness, restore human values, and encourage people from all backgrounds, religions and cultural traditions to come together in celebration and service.

Three volunteers of the Foundation are at present in Kashmir teaching yoga to the CRPF personnel twice a day with each session being of three hours duration.

''Bahut acha lag raha...Mann ko shanti milti hai (I am feeling good...My mind is at peace now),'' said sub-inspector Banarasi Das Yadav after three hours of yoga.

During the three-hour session, the personnel do breathing exercises, sudarshan kriya, pranayam and listen to discourses.

Yadav's views were echoed by his colleagues Dinesh Thakur, P B Kulsanghe, Sham Singh, Munshi Ram, Raj Kumar, S Magesh and others.

A senior volunteer of the Foundation told UNI that he has been taking yoga classes of the Army and paramilitary forces -- the CRPF, the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police -- for past many years now in Kashmir and North East. He said there would be 11 courses for the CRPF personnel with each being of six-day duration. The programme would run for five weeks this time.

The volunteer, on the condition of anonymity, said he had also conducted a similar programme for the BSF personnel, posted in the Kashmir valley, in January-February last year.

''We have received positive feedback from the BSF personnel. Many of them have written to us saying that they are feeling much better and relieved of stress after taking the yoga classes,'' he added.

The volunteer said the personnel drawn from ten CRPF companies would be taught basics in yoga this time and the programmes would again be conducted for other jawans later in the year.

Talking to UNI, CRPF Inspector General, Srinagar, S K Sinha said the Force has taken several measures to check incidents of suicides and fragging/fratricide among its personnel.

The steps include increased formal and informal interaction between jawans and the superiors, strengthening reporting and feedback system, using services of psychiatrists and counsellors to conduct lectures and presentations and educate the personnel, identifying jawans under stress and carrying out psychological conditioning and counselling besides starting yoga and stress management classes, he added.

''We try to know the problems of the jawans and then seek the redressal,'' Mr Sinha said, adding the efforts have started yielding positive results.

UNI