'My brother's death shattered the family'

Raashi Thakran and her brother Raghav

Twenty-one-year-old Raashi Thakran was devastated seven months back when her 18-year-old brother, Raghav, committed suicide. Even though the reason behind it still remains unknown, the family believes he was suffering from depression.

However, as the incident left a lasting impression on Raashi's mind, she decided to initiate the process of starting a centralised suicide prevention helpline. On July 2 she launched a petition on Change.org requesting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to start a national helpline number by September 10 (World Suicide Prevention Day). In the past two weeks, the petition has received more than 74,000 signatures. It reads, "We cannot remove the stigma associated with mental illness without working towards it collectively."

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After Raghav died in January this year, Raashi decided to find out what forced him to take the extreme step. In the process she realised that the nation does not have a centralised suicide prevention helpline number where people can reach out to in such cases.

"My brother's death was so traumatic that we couldn't think of anything else for the longest time. After I recovered from it, I decided to delve deep in the matter. I started reading research papers and other documents related to suicide prevention. That is how I got to know that there are several suicide helpline numbers run by NGOs but none of them are centralised. When I called up some of them, I found most to be non-functional and there was no response from the rest," said Raashi."Then it came to my mind that my brother might have called one of these numbers and did not get any response. May be, he could have been saved," she added.

74k
No. of signatures Raashi's petition got in just two weeks

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