Facebook launches suicide prevention tool in India by partnering with Deepika Padukone’s Foundation

With the increase in number of suicide cases in India, Facebook has taken an initiative to come up with a tool that will help people who might be struggling with self-injury or experiencing suicidal thoughts.

In India, Facebook has collaborated with Deepika Padukone’s Foundation Live, Love & Laugh and AASRA. This tool will directly reach out to those who post something suicidal or self destructive. It will alert Facebook when it feels that a person posted something that will cause concern about their well-being and send it to a team who would work round the clock so as to review the report.

Live, Love & Laugh foundation by Deepika Padukone is an NGO that deals with issues that are related to mental health and depression whereas AASRA is a charity organization that has been working with Facebook for quite a few years now and provides anonymous and confidential professional counselling to people in India.

Talking about this initiative by Facebook, Deepika Padukone said,” Suicide is a complex issue but the causal relationship between mental health and suicide is well established. The rate of suicide amongst the youth in India is one of the highest in the world. We are happy to partner with Facebook in this suicide prevention initiative.”

Johnson Thomas, the Director of AASRA said,” AASRA has been working with Facebook for several years to help people who are having suicidal thoughts. Facebook’s new tool is another step forward in helping to prevent suicide”

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, 1,31,666 people committed suicide in 2014. The data also disclosed that 15 suicides took place in India every one hour on an average during that same year with metros Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai together accounting for almost 37 per cent of the total suicides. Hopefully with the help of this tool, this number will go down in the coming years.