Make counselling and emotional support accessible for all, says Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi emphasizes the need for accessible emotional support and grassroots counselling to combat societal indifference to despair.

Indifference to individual despair reflects a wider societal callousness, former Governor of West Bengal Gopalkrishna Gandhi said on Saturday.

Speaking at the valedictory of Sneha’s 40th anniversary celebration, Mr. Gandhi said suicide prevention could not rest solely with specialists and that in an ideal world, organisations like Sneha would not be needed at all.

While more psychiatrists and counsellors are needed, care must extend into homes and communities, Mr. Gandhi said. Beyond personal crises, he pointed to larger patterns of collective self-harm such as environmental destruction, violence and reckless power, suggesting that society itself can drift towards self-destruction without recognising it.

Using the metaphor of fire safety, he said just as it was not enough to have fire engines and every home needed fire extinguishers, counselling and emotional support must be accessible at the grassroots, ready to respond to distress before it becomes irreversible.

“Suicide is as old as life. It is as mysterious as death. It is as fragile as the flickering flame of a candle that requires two very intelligent palms to enclose it so that it does not go out. And those palms are not just scientific, which they have to be, but they also closely resemble the act of prayer, which is founded on hope,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of Sneha; Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti, president of Sneha; and M.C. Anand, director of Sneha, were present.