27 December,2020 01:23 PM IST | Mumbai | Jane Borges
Raashi Thakran was central to the setting up of Kiran, a government-backed nationwide suicide helpline number. Pic/Ajeesh F Rawther
Thirty minutes before Raashi Thakran's 18-year-old brother Raghav died by suicide on January 6, 2019, he was cracking jokes with her at their Pune residence. "It seemed like any normal Sunday night. We were going to have dinner [after he returned from his jog]. And then, at 8.45 pm, the bell rang and we got the news. I cannot pinpoint what went wrong. He was such a happy and funny guy. I thought my brother shared everything with me, but it wasn't so."
In the months that followed, Thakran struggled with her own mental health. "I'd keep getting nightmares, and anxiety attacks in the middle of the night. Memories from that would keep flashing. When you lose someone so close to you, your entire world falls apart. Apart from grief, there was a lot of guilt. We all kept thinking that maybe, we could have done something to save him." Soon after, Thakran was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Her healing began when she started researching about suicide. "I found out that in 2019, an average of 381 people had died by suicide in India. That was a huge number, and nobody was talking about it. Another disturbing truth was that most suicide helpline numbers available online, did not work." She dialled 15 numbers, but most calls went unanswered, while some numbers were switched off. Only three responded. "I was determined to do something."
Around the same time, Change.org was recruiting fellows for their flagship programme, She Creates Change. "I pitched an idea to have a national helpline for suicide prevention. They immediately got me on board." Following rigorous research and training, on July 6, 2019, Thakran launched her online petition, #StandAgainstSuicide: Launch a national helpline number for suicide prevention, addressed to Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare. Within two months, the campaign got nearly two lakh signatures, and later in October, NITI Aayog - the Government of India think tank, established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals - called on the change.org team, and said they would consider the idea.
Meanwhile, Thakran and her family moved to Bengaluru. "Then the pandemic broke out, and everything took a backseat." It was only when news of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death gripped the nation in June that her petition was revived again. "People had become enraged; more started signing the petition. Everyone realised that this needed to happen. That is when, I and the change.org team began following up with NITI Ayog team and the Ministry of Health again."
Finally, in September this year, the Centre, in a first, launched Kiran - a 24x7 mental health rehabilitation helpline number (1800-599-0019). "When a colleague informed me, I took a deep breath. For some reason, I felt like I could finally breathe," says Thakran, adding, "I receive messages from people, telling me how the helpline had come handy in their hour of need. This is what Raghav would have wanted."
