Umang, the helpline-cum- counselling centre set up at Ranchi Institute of Neuro- Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS) last year in mid- December has received only 30-35 calls till date. The biggest drawback behind this is considered to be poor and pathetic services of Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNl).
The helpline number 0651-2451058 which is launched to provide comprehensive solutions to young mind of the society who needs mental health mostly remains non functional. Frequent disturbance in underground cable wires affects the telephone service of large proportion.
The officials of RINPAS had logged complain regarding the matter to nearby BSNl office but no concrete action has been taken by them.
Director of RINPAS Dr Amool Ranjan said, “Umang is a telephonic medium through we deliver valuable psychological services to our callers but the irony is that most of the time telephone remains out of service. The telephone service remains disturb predominantly in this area as a result of which many adolescent fails to contact us. We had written letters to the concerned officials but no stern action has been taken by them in this direction.”
He further added, “Besides it another reason behind helpline’s oblivion is lack of awareness the youngsters. We have not put forth our efforts in spreading awareness about this helpline, at the time of launch few newspapers advertised about this service but later on no efforts were made to popularize it as a result of which quite a large portion of our society is not aware about this service. But now Department of Social Welfare, Women and Child Development have taken the responsibility of informing teenagers about this helpline.”
Poor academic performance, family conflicts and pressure of competition among their peers are the basic grounds of adolescent distress. Nowadays it has been found that majority of youth is in the race of securing good percentage and facing competitions and it becomes hard to accept their failure in the process.
Counsellor at RINPAS helpline Tabasum Rani said, “Majority of our callers suffer from the stress of poor academics, failed to sustain the competition. It has been seen that teenagers find it difficult to accept their failure their egoistic nature force them to take life threatening moves.
Moreover, there is large portion of teenagers hesitate to share their stress with someone. We provide better counsel to such children and if required we call them to our institute so that they can undergo through better treatment, but the agony is that we are not able to get the calls in adequate number.”
The officials of BSNl were found clueless when enquired about the matter. General Manager (GM) Ranchi Om Prakash said, “I am not aware about registration of any such complain. I will look into the matter and will take required action on it.”