Seniors shouldn’t use abusive language with juniors in paramilitary forces: task force in final draft report

The task force, constituted by the MHA to study and analyse incidents and prepare a comprehensive report, has found that some of the important reasons for service conditions are: trauma of being abused, bullying at the workplace, leave-related problems, extended working hours, and inadequate time for rest.

It has also said mental health-related issues are still “taboos” in the security forces, and the personnel hesitate to share their problems because of the fear of being mocked and taunted as weak by other colleagues.

“The newly recruited jawans are highly educated and their immediate bosses should be sensitised to treat them with dignity, hear their grievances and recognise their services. They cannot be treated as mere subordinates, who do not know anything about the strategy of the operations. Seniors should stop using abusive language with their juniors and behave decently with them,” said a source, citing the report.

In the report, the task force has said that it has found that over 80 per cent of suicides happen when personnel return to work after availing leave, and major of them occurred between 7 to 15 days after returning from home.

“The task force has found that the trigger for suicides may be either family or duty-related. If one of the fronts is easy and smooth, the stress level of the personnel gets managed considerably. The cases of suicide attempted and committed by women personnel are less as compared to male personnel. Male personnel hesitate to share their problem because of the fear of being mocked by other personnel,” the source said.

The task force has recommended that there should be a provision for mental health screening of all the CAPF personnel, returning from leave or other long-term duties through a questionnaire. “Some of the common challenges associated with combat zones are insomnia, agitation, and nightmares, which are considered to be one of the important contributors to suicidality,” the source said.

The task force has also found some of the key reasons for working conditions are prolonged deployment in high-risk areas, long separation from families/forced bachelorship, and tough duty hours inhospitable.

“Mental health-related issues are still taboo in the forces as well as in society. In security forces, especially not only the apprehension of being mocked, and taunted as weak, and worthless, but also a fear of losing jobs persists due to it. As a result, personnel facing the same issues usually don’t open up and share it with their seniors or colleagues,” the source said.