Identify suicide hotspots

The suicide incidents, especially in river Jhelum are rising with each passing day, but the fact remains that the hotspots are not being identified properly yet to take proper and immediate measures to curb such incidents. A report has come to the fore in which the concerned authorities have stated that a process has been started to identify the hotspots here, claiming that three among the places including Amira Kadal, Budshah bridge and Foot bridge—all around the commercial hub Lal Chowk, which puts responsibility on the shoulders of the authorities with regard to taking adequate measures for reducing the number of such incidents. However, it is being appreciated that four persons, who tried to end their lives, have been prevented from doing so in the past one month, but what needs to be done is the further preventive steps to curb such cases in the future. One cannot imagine the reduction in number of suicide cases without the counselling. Therefore, besides taking measures to come up with a strong grid to prevent such incidents, there is a need to come up with a mechanism for counselling of such persons, so that they would not make any such attempt in the future again to end their lives. Moreover, there is a need to identify all the hotspots in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Union Territory to ensure that the people who are attempting to take extreme steps are prevented from doing so to ensure that the precious lives are saved well on time.