As per the World Bank's report on 28 June 2018, seven out of the top 10 most-affected hotspot districts from south Asia will belong to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. The report proved to be very true, the situation in Vidarbha is worsening consistently. In January 2020, 60 farmers killed themselves and it is estimated that every 8 hours one farmer in west Vidarbha commit suicide with a total of 1,057 suicide recorded in the last 11 months. Thus this is an emergency that arises in Vidarbha and we are finding ourselves hopeless to accelerate our efforts.

Project Idea:

To address this emergent issue, preventive measures may take longer to heal the situation. Thus we have started working on the mental health of the community in Vidarbha. A team of our 25 volunteers is working to screen the depression level of farmers. To do that, they are visiting every home in a particular village. Their preliminary screening of villagers is carried out by following the PHQ12 questionnaire which is enough to distinguish the patients with mild, low, or acute depression. The patients thus traced, may be further examined in District Civil Hospital for free. Psychologists and Psychiatrists may take care of their treatment and further counseling.

Progress Made So Far:

For the psychiatric rehabilitation of farmers, we have targeted 128 villages in Washim. We have begun this by adopting a village Nagthana under which we have screened 5000+ beneficiaries for their depression level through the PHQ-12 questionnaire and referred the acutely depressed patients to Civil Hospital for further treatment. For mild and medium depressed populations we have a happiness program. We have succeeded in saving the lives of 40 beneficiaries through this project. Now we are looking forward to taking on this to 127 other villages.

Targeted Beneficiaries:

1,78270 beneficiaries above 18 years of age are based in 128 villages of rural Washim.

• UNIMINUTO University of Columbia is a working partner of our organization, contributing to this project.
• We are the only organization in our region to undertake this unique project to save farmers' lives.
• We have the digital format of checking the depression level of beneficiaries which facilitates screening in an ineffective way and may be available at everybody’s fingertips.
• We are working in collaboration with the Civil Hospital of Washim which helps beneficiaries in getting free treatment.
• We have a very comprehensive plan of happiness program for villages, which makes us unique in tackling the suicide plight in Vidarbha.
• Many schools are college students who are contributing to us for fieldwork and surveying so with minimal expenditure, we are creating a remarkable impact.
• We have working experience in screening depressed beneficiaries which further helps us in tackling the suicide issues in Vidarbha.