Every 3rd soldier’s death in J&K a suicide — data backs USI report on stress junked by army
Meerut: Ten out of 30 fatalities among the Indian security forces personnel in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year are apparent suicides. The majority of them are from among army personnel.
There was also an apparent suicide by a sailor in Mumbai, which takes the number to 11 out of 36 recorded fatalities pan-India.
The month of March was particularly grim in which six apparent suicides were reported, including that of a lieutenant colonel in Srinagar, J&K. There have been two so far this month — a Sashastra Seema Bal jawan who jumped to death in Srinagar and an armyman who shot himself dead in J&K’s Ramban district.
The complete list of fatalities may be seen here in this Twitter thread or this spreadsheet.
The series of suicides follow the junking of a report from an Indian military think tank that highlighted severe stress levels in the Indian Army and noted that the force loses more personnel to suicides, fratricides, and other stress-induced incidents than to operations. The report was junked by none other than the Chief of the Army Staff after it was taken off the think tank’s website.
The report, titled “Prevailing stress levels in Indian Army due to prolonged exposure to counter insurgency/counter-terrorism environment”, was authored by Colonel AK Mor, a research fellow at the government-run United Services Institution of India (USI) during 2019–2020.
Since its deletion from the website, an archived version has been discovered on the Internet Archive and screenshots have also been shared on Twitter.
The report noted: “There has been a significant increase in stress levels amongst Indian Army personnel during approximately last two decades due to operational and non-operational stressors. Furthermore, presently more than half of Indian army personnel seem to be under severe stress.”
Officers more stressed, distrust among ranks a major stressor
The author noted that officers were found to be more prone to stress than junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and other ranks (ORs) with poor leadership being a central feature that was highlighted by both the officers and JCOs-ORs.
Notably, two of the 10 personnel who died by apparent suicides in J&K were officers — Major Fayazullah Khan who shot himself dead at a post at Line of Control in Tangdhar sector in Kupwara district and Lt Col SB Singh who shot himself dead in Srinagar.
The officers, as per the report, noted inadequate leadership; unfair and opaque postings and promotions; insufficient accommodation and lack of educational facilities; poorly motivated juniors; and short command tenures as some of the causes of stress.
The JCOs and ORs noted humiliation by seniors; lack of dignity; conflict with seniors and subordinates; unreasonable restrictions on the use of mobiles; lack of recreational facilities; inadequacy of train reservation, etc. as reasons for stress.
The report further noted an absence of trust on part of officers in their JCOs and ORs.
“The officers lack a similar level of trust, faith, and confidence in their leadership that JCOs-OR demonstrate,” noted the report.
New institutionalised approach needed to tackle the issue
Most of the stressors are non-operational in nature, arising out of causes not directly related to the everyday job-profile. These stressors, the report noted, have an adverse effect on the health and combat efficiency of soldiers and affects their respective units as well.
“Units and sub-units under stress are likely to witness an increased number of incidents of indiscipline, unsatisfactory state of training, inadequate maintenance of equipment and low morale and motivation, thereby adversely affecting their combat preparedness and operational performance,” noted the report.
The measures implemented over the last 15 years have proven to be inadequate and need to be revisited. As causes for stress of officers and JCOs-ORs are different, they cannot be treated with the same approach.
Life event scales (LES), formulated by the Armed Forces Medical College to assess the stress in the service personnel, need to be revisited as per the report.
The report stated: “Some of the life events need to be modified and even deleted while some appropriate events need to be included to make this particular scale more representative and effective.
“Also, separate life event scales need to be formulated for officers, JCOs, and ORs due to their differing roles and service conditions.”
Col. Mor noted that an institutionalised approach is needed to address the issue and existing stress-mitigation efforts need to be strengthened.
Questions raised on the report
While the deletion of the report has been met with criticism, the report itself has been questioned as well. Lieutenant General (Retired) Vinod Bhatia, a former Director General of Military Operations, asked on Twitter what was the sample size and methodology for the study. He also questioned how a one-officer study arrived at such broad conclusions.
The USI report accessed through the Internet Archive does not mention any sample size or methodology.
General MM Naravane also raised the issue of sample size. He said in January, “I have read this report. I will say that the sample size was only 400. And I understand this is not an adequate sample size.”
While it’s a genuine question about the report’s methodology, it needs no scientific analysis to figure out there is a problem — it’s staring at us with all its gore. Eleven out of all the 36 fatalities so far this year are apparent suicides.
Meanwhile, the army chief said it’s not that bad. He said, “Maybe there is stress. Even I am stressed. But stress is not always a bad thing. Stress can also result in good work.”
This is the first story on suicides among security forces personnel. Follow the space for more on the subject.
POST SCRIPT:
I have used the term “apparent suicides” in the blogpost because even as they are suicides, they will be “officially” called a suicide once internal (and external, if any) inquiries are concluded and results of such inquiries are not mostly not public, so we may never know their “official” status. That’s why they are “apparent suicides” because they appear as suicides even though the official confirmation may not come until at a very later date — if it comes at all.
I track fatalities among Indian central security forces personnel, particularly the armed forces, along with the Kashmir conflict, on Twitter. The thread may be followed here. My username is @madhur_mrt.
