By Aswathy Sachin - March 17, 2016
An Emotional Support System Started by an IIT Alumnus to Stop Suicide:
Almost all people in our country are the victims of depression to a great extent. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Indians are among the worst hit by depression, and are committing suicides. In order to give an ending to this worst situation an IIT alumnus has started an emotional support system named yourdost.com. By yourdost.com IIT alumnus could stop suicide attempts to a certain limit. The name of the IIT alumnus is Richa Singh.
YourDost.com paves a platform for youngsters for discussing their problems with qualified and veteran persons, in obscurity.
Problems among those who have sought help range from stress due to bad performance in competitive exams like CAT, IAS, etc. and relationship issues, anxiety during exam preparation, and the feeling of rejection due to working in a field they don’t enjoy, reported The Huffington Post.
Image Credits: The New Indian Express
According to a 2015 report in The Economic Times, stress is part and parcel of college life, but for some students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it can get overwhelming. Everything adds up: daunting academic loads, struggling to keep up after a lifetime of being an overachiever and the burden of expectations from family, friends and peers.
In 2014, the IITs saw an estimated 14 student suicides, probably the highest ever across these elite colleges. The inability to cope – often spiraling into depression – has haunted several students. “The world creates artificial expectations. There’s peer pressure, family pressure, societal pressure.
Unfortunately, for some students, their ambition is centered around pay packages. To their mind, their success will be judged only around their pay packages and placements,” said Indranil Manna, director, IIT Kanpur.
This is where Richa’s involvement plays a vital role. Anonymity helps, says Richa. “We all face problems, stress and anxiety at some point in our life but mostly we are not willing to talk about these, fearing social implications, being judged and for the fear of being judged. We are confident that technology combined with empathy and right kind of experts will go a long way in helping people going through a various emotional and mental challenges and equipping them to better deal with it,” says Richa in a report in Business Standard.
Your DOST, is available as a free service both through its web portal and mobile app, according to Inc 42, has close to 70,000 users, which is growing, at about 40% month-on-month basis.
According to psychiatrist Sidney Cobb social support was a subjective sensation in which the individual feels, “That he is cared for and loved. That he is esteemed and valued; that he belongs to a network of communication and mutual obligation.”
In this sense Richa is doing a wonderful job. She is offering a wholehearted help to the people suffering from depression and is always ready to solve their problems at any time. YourDost.com really acts as a reassuring system to needy persons. Well-done Richa and her team!!
