Bengaluru, Jan 20: The Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh on Saturday said there is an urgent need to facilitate and develop a nationwide programme to prevent suicides.
Delivering a 23rd convocation of NIMHANS here, the Union Minister expressed concern over the increasing trend of suicide rates in the country. “Suicides are not mere statistics they also concern and are related to the impact and burden on the family. It has been commonly told that suicides are a cry for help and we should be helping such individuals who have been suffering from chronic stress.”
Stating that it was for this reason that the Centre had brought in the necessary amendment with the new Mental Health Care Act of 2017, he said that “the Act de-criminalises suicides, and in addition, we also need to build support systems for such people who are thinking or attempting harming themselves,” the Minister said.
Maintaining that the overall spending on health sector is not enough and there is a need to increase spending on the health sector, he said that said the Centre planned to enhance health expenditure from 1.2 per cent of the GDP to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025.
“As the public sector spending is constrained, there is an urgent need to encourage increased participation of private healthcare providers,” Mr Singh said.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda exuded confidence that NIMHANS will further step up its role in responding to the challenges of mental health care.
“To be able to achieve this, NIMHANS will have to nurture similar institutions regionally and if required, in the states of our country,” he said.
Since 2014-2015, the number of undergraduate and postgraduate seats have been increased by 18,000 and 13,000 respectively taking the total number of UG and PG seats in the country to 70,000 and 45,000 respectively, he added.
As many as 118 new medical colleges have been added in the last five years raising the total number of medical colleges to 499, which is the highest in the world with 70,000 seats, the Minister said adding that existing medical colleges are being upgraded by setting up of super specialty blocks in 70 such colleges in the entire country.
“We are expanding the network of our medical colleges in a big way by upgrading 82 district and referral hospitals to medical colleges,” he added.
This year, a total of 192 students received their postgraduate qualifications. Of these 13 students were presented special awards for their academic excellence.
