Stress zone: A jawan in Kashmir

New Delhi, Dec. 19: Soldier suicides are beginning to vie with farmer suicides in India for national attention.

But while farmer suicides are occasional subjects of national interest, soldier suicides are still a military matter. Defence minister A.K. Antony today took a step forward to put concern over soldier suicides on the national agenda even as a jawan shot himself in Kashmir last evening.

More than 100 soldiers have committed suicide so far this year — at the rate of one soldier suicide reported every three days. Besides this there have been 23 killings through “fragging” or “fratricide” — soldiers turning the gun on colleagues or superiors before killing themselves. Since 2002, there have been more than 400 soldier suicides.

Antony wrote to chief ministers today seeking the help of state administrations while the army packed a bodybag with yet another soldier who had shot himself.

In the latest incident, a 24-year-old soldier of the Rashtriya Rifles was found with a bullet in his body on Monday evening.

The soldier, who was not named, was said to have returned from leave recently. He had also gone through a minor surgery. He is said to have killed himself near a camp of the Rashtriya Rifles in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Rashtriya Rifles is staffed by the army and is a dedicated counter-insurgency force in Jammu and Kashmir.

In his letter to the chief ministers, Antony sought their help to get “prompt responses from district administrations and the police” on complaints of domestic problems in soldiers’ families. He said domestic problems were caused by disputes on property, land and familial relationships.

Antony has also suggested that the state governments set up separate mechanisms at the state and district levels to resolve problems reported by soldiers. He said soldiers were not able to visit their homes far away from the front often enough, he said.