Gujarat Hardlook: Stalling Suicides At Sabarmati

While walking up to the Eastern side of Sardar Bridge from Jamalpur, a signboard caught the man’s attention.

The board had a message: “Suicide is not the solution to your problem”, with a phone number. The man called up the helpline number (1800-233-3330) and reached out to the senior counsellor — the last attempt at aid.

“I spoke to him for more than 25 minutes. The man was in dire financial straits. He was unable to meet the monetary needs of his family and had bank officials knocking on his door to collect the overdue installments. While he did seem receptive of the counselling, he was still a suicide risk, so we connected to the Ahmedabad Police, who reached the spot and rescued him,” said the senior counsellor at JAH, which is run under the Suraksha Setu initiative of the Gujarat Police.

Even though this man was fortunate to have received the help he deserved, the lacklustre attitude of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in maintaining these critical signboards has meant that others have not been so lucky.

On December 17, an 18-year-old man who had not been able to find a job jumped into the Sabarmati river from the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Bridge that connects the Ashram Road on the Western Bank with the Piplaj-Pirana area on the Eastern Bank. Soon, the traffic began to build up on the bridge with the crowd of curious onlookers swelling up.

There are several cases where people also note down the number from the signboards… even if they hesitate initially, they call later on, seeking help.
Senior counsellor,
Jeevan Aastha Helpline

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People were stopping in the middle of the road, parking their vehicles and peering down into the murky waters of the Sabarmati as the two-man River Rescue Teams from the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) attempted to search for the man who had just climbed onto the 12-feet tall bridge barrier (fence) and attempted to end his life. This happened around 5:10 pm.

The River Rescue Team, which had arrived within a few minutes, after gauging the accident spot, launched a search and rescue operation in the river in a grid pattern with a dredging tool behind their boat.

Even as the precious minutes were depleting, so was the public’s attention span. People seemed to have forgotten that a human life was at stake. Some were busy calling up their friends and family about witnessing the spectacle, while others took videos and photos and then there were some who were discussing the futility of rescuing a person who wanted to end their life in the first place.

A poster put up on the riverfront by SRFDCL that reads: “Stop. Don’t take a rash decision in anger”. However, no helpline number is provided along with these signs (Express)

After 15 minutes, there was still no sign of the man and the public’s interest too, seemed to wane, with many driving away after recording the videos on their mobile phones. However, on the Eastern Bank of the riverfront, the crowd only seemed to grow. At 5:45 pm, there were shouts of elation as the rescuers grabbed a hand out of the water and pulled the young man into the boat. Efforts at resuscitation, however, proved futile.

Earlier there would be a signboard to dissuade suicide exactly behind the place from where the young man had jumped on the East end. But the signboard was missing and along with it, the promise of help. And one more life, that perhaps could have been saved, had been lost to the Sabarmati river.

In November 2023, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had set up signboards against suicide on seven bridges spanning the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. These signboards, put up on both sides of the bridges, also have the helpline number (1800-233-3330), urging people in need to call and seek help, assuring them a sympathetic ear, a friendly shoulder and a kind word at the moment when all seems lost.

Notably, this programme was adopted from the already prevalent campaign on the Narmada Canal in Gandhinagar, where the JAH had received a total of 508 calls from people who read the signboard between 2015 and 2022. Of these, 322 people who were suicidal were successfully talked out of taking the extreme step. Of the 322 rescued, 217 even agreed to go for follow-up counselling.

More calls, fewer deaths

The JAH has received 1,682 more phone calls seeking help between November 2023 and October 2024, compared to the same period previous year. This is a rise of 34% in people calling to seek help, said retired Police Inspector Pravin Valera, who continues to guide the Jeevan Aastha team.

Compared to the 211 cases of people falling or jumping into the Sabarmati river between November 2022 to October 2023, the numbers have declined, going to 185, between November 2023 and October 2024, according to the data from the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES). Further, the death toll has gone down from 184 (between November 2022 to October 2023) to 153 (between November 2023 to October 2024). According to the data, 27 people were saved between November 2022 to October 2023 and the number was 32 between November 2023 to October 2024.

Death toll over the decade

In the last 10 (calendar) years, between 2014 and 2023, a total of 2,206 people have fallen or jumped into the Sabarmati river. Of these, 1,755 (75%) people died and only 451 (25%) could be saved. This is not only evident from the fact that there are bridge barriers (fences) across almost all the bridges over the river, but that there is a guardrail across the entire stretch of the Riverfront.

Bharat Mangela, one of only two members of the River Rescue Team on the Sabarmati, who is expected to save everyone over the 11 km length of the Sabarmati riverfront with the help of just one colleague and a single boat, says, “Almost all the people we rescue are those who jump deliberately into the river. The reasons as far as they tell us include marital problems, financial problems, young love not accepted by family, depression, those in debt, those who cannot control addiction,” Mangela said. “There were many cases where people were suffering from cancer or other major diseases,” Mangela added.

“There are also cases where domestic fights lead to the women jumping (into the river) with their children. Last month itself, a woman who had gone against her family wishes and got married was so distraught after her family didn’t invite her for her brother’s wedding that she attempted to jump in the river,” he said.

“Recently, we have also seen an increase in cases where people opted for suicide because they were victims of cybercrime and the criminals had threatened to leak their private videos. Societal shame is a great detrimental factor,” said Mangela.

Signs of neglect

In November 2023, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner M Thennarasan had ordered the installation of the suicide signboards over seven out of the nine river bridges: Subhash Bridge, Dadhichi Bridge, Gandhi Bridge, Ellisbridge, Nehru Bridge, Sardar Bridge and Ambedkar Bridge. There were two signboards installed on each bridge, one on the West and the other on the East end, totalling 14 boards in all.

This month, when The Indian Express conducted a check on the placement of the signboards on all seven bridges, only four were still in place with no sign of the rest of boards.

The signboards were intact only on both sides of the Ellisbridge (Vivekanand), on the West end of Subhash Bridge, and on the East end of the Sardar Bridge.

Almost all the people we rescue are those who jump deliberately into the river. Reasons include marital problems, financial issues and addiction, among others.
Bharat Mangela, rescue team member

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While Indira Bridge and Atal Foot Bridge have never had the signboards, the boards have completely disappeared off of Dadhichi Bridge, Gandhi Bridge, Nehru Bridge and Ambedkar Bridge, where they had been installed last year. When contacted, Dr Sanket Patel, Assistant Health Officer of the AMC, who is in charge of the programme, said that he was unaware that the signboards were no longer there. He promised to look into the matter.

Lackadaisical approach

Even as there are a few bridges that have the helpline signboards, no such measures have been taken along the Sabarmati riverfront, whose long and often dark stretches are prime spots for people “falling” into the river.

A senior counsellor at JAH said, “Recently, we got a call from a 25-year-old man who had gone to the Sabarmati riverfront to end his life. However, after seeing one of the signboards on the bridges, he called the helpline. He said that he wanted to end his life because he had been fired from his job. We successfully talked him out of the decision. We did not need to call the police to rescue him”.

“There are several cases where people also note down the number from the signboards, even if they hesitate initially, they call later on, seeking help,” the counsellor added. According to the rescuers also, the number of suicide cases has been increasing near the Riverfront.
The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) has put up small signs that read, “Don’t take a rash decision in anger”.

There is no helpline number or aid provided on these signs. When asked about this, Executive Director Dev Choudhary, who is also a Deputy Municipal Commissioner with the AMC, said, “We will certainly ensure that boards with helpline numbers are up on the riverfront, especially near the staircases so that people can see it immediately while entering the lower promenade”.

Lack of manpower

The 11-km long riverfront is set to be extended by 5.5 km — making it 38.5 km in length — under the Phase-2 of the development project, extending to Gandhinagar in seven phases. However, even as the length of the riverfront has grown and with it the stream of people spending time there, only two men — who are a part of the AFES River Rescue Team — have been standing guard there for the last decade.

These two men on a single boat are expected to patrol the entire riverfront from end to end while saving anyone who tries to jump or has fallen into the river. In the last 10 years, the two-member team has managed to save 451 lives and yet this only comprises 25% of all the people who have fallen or jumped into the river.

For a couple of years now, there have been plans to set up Fire Chowkis (smaller fire units with boats) on both banks of the river but the plans haven’t materialised yet. Rescuers say most of the people they find are already dead. When asked about this, in-charge Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Jayesh Khadia confirmed that there were no hard plans in place as of now.

Police promise action

Ahmedabad City Police’s Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) earlier in December said that it will study the nine bridges from where suicides or attempted suicides have taken place with key points, including the impact of fences, signboards and helpline.

According to DCP Ajit Rajian, only 536 cases of accidental deaths (AD) have been registered at the Riverfront East and West Police Stations in the past five years.

The police will be bifurcating this data into accidental deaths and suicides. However, data obtained by The Indian Express from the River Rescue Team shows that there have been a total of 681 deaths in the past five years, between 2019 and 2023.