In Needamangalam, a tiny village in Tiruvarur district of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, an alarmingly high suicide rate had become a matter of grave concern. In fact, in a span of 15 years (from 1995 to 2011), 83 of the 92 deaths in the village were suicides.<\/p>\n
That is when Anand Thiyagarajan, a teacher at the local school, decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n
When Anand\u00a0noticed the perpetually low parent turnout at the Parent Teacher Meetings at the school, he found\u00a0that a majority of the students had lost one or both parents to suicide.<\/p>\n
His attempt to counsel community members in 2011 had received a lukewarm response. Subsequently, he made a second attempt to tackle the issue involving the school students.<\/p>\n
Despite suicides devastating a number of families, students found a disturbing lack of awareness in the community. However, a change process began with an impactful play that the students put up at the school’s Annual Day function.<\/p>\n
The play depicted a typical series of events from a trivial domestic altercation leading to a suicide, eventually showing how the lives of orphaned children panned out, with some having to turn to beg to make a living.<\/p>\n
The play garnered a tremendously positive response. It drove the point home strongly, with members of the audience admitting, \u201cNobody was even using the word \u2018suicide\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play was followed by a series of awareness rallies and street plays that used relevant and contextual elements such as the depiction of Gods and the stories of courage and faith.<\/p>\n
To reinforce the impact of the awareness efforts, Thiyagarajan even decided to employ a village youth club called the Diamond Boys that\u00a0provided door-to-door counselling across 380 households.<\/p>\n
And the result was that by the end of\u00a02013, the village recorded zero suicides!<\/p>\n