Optimising Stress in Sub-Conventional Warfare

On an average we have been having about 100 suicide cases a year in the past four to five years, so this year has been the same. Mainly it is in insurgency-hit areas, but suicides are also happening in areas where there is no insurgency. Deployment in such environments has resulted in a number of stress related incidents and cases of suicides and fratricides, which is definitely a cause of serious convern. While measures initiated to arrest such trend have yielded some positive results, a holistic approach to arrest this trend is definitely required. In general, causative issues of counter insurgency stress are occupational factors like increased workload, lack of adequate sleep and rest and non grant of timely leave which were highlighted before pressure from family front coupled with host of personal factors in order of priority. As per report in the media, the officers considered personal causes as prominent precursors of suicide and fratricide, while personnel below officer rank considered occupational and familial factors as more important than personal ones.

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