Chennai Conference

The 15th National Conference of Befrienders India was held at Chennai, at the Green Coconut Grove Resort from 23rd Sept to 25 September 2011
Director Johnson and 2 volunteers ( Nita and myself) participated in the Conference.
We also conducted an interactive session with a powerpoint presentation on the topic VOLUNTEER ETHICS. for all the participants of the conference.
All centres from INDIA and SRI LANKA gave presentations on the topics assigned to them.
That being said, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the SNEHA TEAM ,our hosts in Chennai for putting up a great show.
The two and half days spent with all of you will be memorable for the warmth with which you welcomed us and made us feel at home.
All the guest lectures arranged were informative and useful ,for not only us, as volunteers, but as human beings so as to cope and live enriching lives.
The volunteers at SNEHA, have exhibited their capacity for hard work and commitment which is really appreciable.
The entertainment nights, helped all of us to unwind and bond with each other.
Once again , Kudos to the SNEHA team.
And Thank You Boss! :-0

MBA hangs self:hubby, in-laws arrested

Andheri video suicide: Hubby, in-laws arrested Published: Friday, Sep 30, 2011, 9:00 IST Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA The father of 24-year-old Nidhi Singh, who hanged herself in her MIDC flat on Tuesday, wants the video clip of her last moments of her life. “I want the video in which my daughter has shared her pain and agony before ending her life. I have an emotional connect with that video as those last few moments will be with me all my life. But the police are refusing to give me as they have used it as an evidence,” said Vedprakash Singh. He was upset and shocked by the attitude by Nidhi’s in-laws. “Samdarshi [Nidhi’s husband] should have performed the last rites but none of her in-laws came to the cemetery. I had to perform the last rites,” said Singh. On Thursday, the police arrested Samdarshi, 28, his father Raghvendra, 55, and his mother Lata (48) on charges of abetment to suicide and dowry harassment after Vedprakash lodged a complaint. “For the past few months, Samdarshi had been torturing her. When we refused to give him Rs5 lakh a week ago, his harassment grew. Nidhi couldn’t share anything with us as it was a love marriage and didn’t want to reveal his faults,” Singh said. Singh had sensed something amiss, especially after Nidhi started avoiding his calls. “She used to avoid our phone calls and even when she spoke with us, the conversations were short. My wife visited Nidhi recently, and at that time too, Samdarshi had assaulted her in front of her mother. Nidhi was to visit us on October 6,” said Singh. The police said Nidhi was reportedly harassed as Samdarshi had affairs. “On the day of the incident, my wife kept calling Nidhi but she did not answer. My wife then phoned Samdarshi and asked him whether Nidhi was fine, but he got angry and hurled abuses,” Singh said.

Metallic gene- a rare genetic mutation called Wilson's disease can make youngsters behave erratically

Metallic gene A rare genetic mutation, Wilson’s disease, caused 15-year-old Aditya Tiwari to behave erratically, which led to him being expelled from school. He’s now on the road to recovery Ankit Ajmera Posted On Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 04:15:25 AM Three years ago, late one night, 12-year-old Aditya Tiwari was kicked out of the house. His father Manoj Tiwari left him standing alone on a highway. Aditya had been watching TV the whole day. When his father switched it off, Aditya started hitting him. Aditya’s irresponsible, aggressive and errant behaviour had become a menace for the family. He had hit his mother, troubled his little sister, never did his homework, tore his books, masturbated frequently and quarrelled with friends. What Manoj didn’t know was that his son, now 15 years old, was suffering from a rare genetic disorder called Wilson’s disease that had changed him from a normal boy to an erratic aggressive child almost suddenly. The neurological and motor damage happened within a span of six months. What is Wilson’s disease? Dr Mohit Bhatt, consultant neurologist and movement disorder specialist at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, explains that Wilson’s disease is caused when a defective XX or XY gene is transferred from both the parents to the child. When two defective genes, one from each parent combine, it impacts the ceruloplasmin enzyme which is responsible for metabolising copper in the body. In healthy people, the liver excretes most of the unnecessary copper through the kidneys with the help of the ceruloplasmin enzyme. When the liver is unable to produce it, copper is released into the blood stream and travels throughout the body damaging the brain, kidneys, liver and eyes. The body starts showing symptoms of the disease between the age of 6 and 20. In most cases the disease goes undiagnosed because it doesn’t have a set pattern of symptoms. Some common variations are — changes in one’s personality, speech impairment, hyper-sexuality, repeated jaundice, difficulty in movement and uncontrolled aggression or depression. The onset Aditya was studying in Class Five when the disease hit him. His concentration in studies dipped and his grades dropped. “Every day there was a complaint from his school,” says his father, who works as a salesman. “He had failed in a class test, spoilt his book by salivating on it or picked up a fight with one of his classmates. Like us, the teachers too didn’t have clue what was going on with our son. The only thing he would do constantly is watch television and annoy his sister who is four years younger. He had become irritable and did not like anybody objecting to what he was doing,” says Manoj. Things got out of hand when Aditya bashed up one of his classmates and injured him. “He had stolen my book. I was just trying to get it back,” says Aditya. His speech at the time had deteriorated and he couldn’t explain himself. The school authorities found his behaviour unacceptable and rusticated him from the school. Manoj was shattered and decided to throw him out of the house. He later realised his mistake and after frantic hours of searching, Aditya was found across the highway at his uncle’s house. He was taken to the doctor and diagnosed with Wilson’s disease. It had manifested itself in the form of speech impairment, difficulty in walking, aggression and hyper sexuality. The way out The treatment involves a medication that traps the copper in the blood and releases it through urine. However, due to high doses of Penicillamine, a drug used in Wilson’s treatment, Aditya’s condition got worse. The side effects further slowed down his motor and cognitive functions. Dr Bhatt finally came to Manoj’s rescue and helped them with the right treatment. According to Bhatt, if the disease is not treated in time, symptoms such as hyper sexuality can become uncontrollable. “If hypersexual patients have the means, they would watch porn incessantly, visit prostitutes, masturbate regularly and even grab someone in public. However, Aditya’s case wasn’t as severe,” says Bhatt. Path to Recovery It’s been two years since Aditya started the treatment and life is almost back to normal. He has overcome his aggression and motor impairment. He still slurs while talking but his condition is improving. With time, the dosage of medicines will reduce, however, he will need to take them for life. His 11-year-old sister was lucky and didn’t get the faulty gene from her parents. For the three precious years of schooling he lost, his father has been desperate to get him readmitted. “School principals tell me that they would not like to take a risk with a child who was rusticated for bad behaviour,” says Manoj. “After pleading, the principal of his previous school agreed to take him on a trail basis.” Aditya was admitted to standard six in the month of June this year. His behaviour has been exemplary since and he is performing well in studies. “I even got a good remark from my teacher,” he says delighted. The varied mutant Experts in Europe have examined genetic defects of disease-affected patients and found 600 different mutations. This makes it very easy to isolate and diagnose. Given India’s large population, finding and mapping total number of mutations in the affected people requires large funding. Recently Dr Mohit Bhatt and his team, in collaboration with a German lab, identified three new Indian mutations of the disease. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wilson's disease Hepatolenticular degeneration Last reviewed: September 10, 2010. Wilson's disease is an inherited disorder in which there is too much copper in the body's tissues. The excess copper damages the liver and nervous system. Causes, incidence, and risk factors Wilson's disease is a rare inherited disorder. If both parents carry an abnormal gene for Wilson's disease, there is a 25% chance in each pregnancy that the child will have the disorder. Wilson's disease causes the body to take in and keep too much copper. The copper deposits in the liver, brain, kidneys, and the eyes. The deposits of copper cause tissue damage, death of the tissues, and scarring, which causes the affected organs to stop working correctly. This condition is most common in eastern Europeans, Sicilians, and southern Italians, but may occur in any group. Wilson's disease typically appears in people under 40 years old. In children, the symptoms begin to show by age 4. Symptoms Abnormal posture of arms and legs Confusion or delirium Dementia Difficulty moving arms and legs, stiffness Difficulty walking (ataxia) Emotional or behavioral changes Enlargement of the abdomen (abdominal distention) Personality changes Phobias, distress (neuroses) Slow movements Slow or decreased movement and expressions of the face Speech impairment Tremors of the arms or hands Uncontrollable movement Unpredictable and jerky movement Vomiting blood Weakness Yellow skin (jaundice) or yellow color of the white of the eye (icterus) Signs and tests A slit-lamp eye examination may show: Limited eye movement Rusty or brown-colored ring around the iris (Kayser-Fleischer rings) A physical examination may show signs of: Damage to the central nervous system, including loss of coordination, loss of muscle control, muscle tremors, loss of thinking and IQ, loss of memory, and confusion (delirium or dementia) Liver or spleen disorders (including cirrhosis, splenomegaly, and liver necrosis) Lab tests may include: Complete blood count (CBC) Serum ceruloplasmin Serum copper Serum uric acid Urine copper If there are liver problems, lab tests may find: High AST and ALT High bilirubin High PT and PTT Low albumin Other tests may include: 24-hour urine copper test Abdominal x-ray Abdominal MRI CT scan of the abdomen Head CT scan Head MRI Liver biopsy The gene responsible for Wilson's disease has been found. It is called ATP7B. DNA testing is available for this gene. However, testing is complicated because different ethnic groups may have different changes (mutations) in this gene. Treatment The goal of treatment is to reduce the amount of copper in the tissues. This is done by a procedure called chelation -- certain medications can bind to copper and help remove it through the kidneys or gut. Treatment must be lifelong. The following medications may be used: Penicillamine (Cuprimine, Depen) binds to copper and leads to increased release of copper in the urine. Trientine (Syprine) binds (chelates) the copper and increases its release through the urine. Zinc acetate (Galzin) blocks copper from being absorbed in the intestinal tract. Vitamin E supplements may also be used. Sometimes, medications that chelate copper (especially penicillamine) can affect the function of the brain and nervous system (neurological function). Other medications under investigation may bind copper without affecting neurological function. A low-copper diet may also be recommended. Foods to avoid include: Chocolate Dried fruit Liver Mushrooms Nuts Shellfish You may want to drink distilled water because most tap water flows through copper pipes. Avoid using copper cooking utensils. Symptoms may be treated with exercise or physical therapy. People who are confused or unable to care for themselves may need special protective measures. A liver transplant may be considered in cases where the liver is severely damaged by the disease. Support Groups Wilson's disease support groups can be found at www.wilsonsdisease.org and www.geneticalliance.org. Expectations (prognosis) Lifelong treatment is needed to control Wilson's disease. The disorder may cause fatal effects, especially loss of liver function and toxic effects of copper on the nervous system. In cases where the disorder is not fatal, symptoms may be disabling. Complications Anemia (hemolytic anemia is rare) Central nervous system complications Cirrhosis Death of liver tissues Fatty liver Hepatitis Increased number of bone fractures Increased number of infections Injury caused by falls Jaundice Joint contractures or other deformity Loss of ability to care for self Loss of ability to function at work and home Loss of ability to interact with other people Loss of muscle mass (muscle atrophy) Psychological complications Side effects of penicillamine and other medications used to treat the disorder Spleen problems Liver failure and damage to the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord) are the most common and dangerous effects of the disorder. If not caught and treated early, Wilson's disease is fatal. Calling your health care provider Call your health care provider if you have symptoms of Wilson's disease. Call a genetic counselor if you have a history of Wilson's disease in your family and you are planning to have children. Prevention Genetic counseling is recommended for people with a family history of Wilson's disease. References Kaler SG. Wilson's disease. In: Goldman L, Ausiello D, eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 230. Review Date: 9/10/2010. Reviewed by: Chad Haldeman-Englert, MD, Division of Human Genetics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. Logo of A.D.A.M. A.D.A.M., Disclaimer Copyright © 2011, A.D.A.M., Inc.

SC opines death sentence to be made an exception, Death penalty, capital punishment

SC: Let death sentence be an exception The Supreme Court on Wednesday said on wednesday 28th, 2011, except in terror cases, death sentence in other diabolic murders can be given only after carefully weighing the mitigating circumstances in favor of the accused. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Should Capital Punishment be abolished? By Lawcrats on 17 May 2011 07:35 in Blawg-osphere 8 Comments Capital Punishment....we can live without it Capital punishment is an issue which figures prominently in philosophical, religious and political discussions, and has absorbed the attentions of law-makers and the public worldwide. Right wing politicians usually express strong support for capital punishment, while more moderate, liberal and leftist politicians openly oppose it and seek to eliminate the death penalty from national law. The issue has become a global concern and some attempts have been made to regulate the issues under national as well as international law. The Universal Declaration of human rights, adopted on December 10, 1948, by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III), states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”(Art 3). The declaration used the term ‘everyone’, which implies the interpretation that no one should be deprived of this basic right, including persons who have been convicted of a crime. The resolution proclaimed ‘life’ as the supreme value that deserved full, unconditional legal protection, regardless the circumstances. The first attempt by the United Nations to abolish the death penalty was made...Read more Tags: rule of law, Capital Punishment, Legal Rule, law Hits: 602 1 vote 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 « Project Sharing - A Trend We know what you did .....Sex, Crime, Facebook, Sp... » Author Related Posts About the author Lawcrats Message Author Add as friend Comments cogitasocietatis #1 cogitasocietatis Tue, 17 May 11 13:12 It is well settled principle that capital punishment should be awarded in "rarest of rare case", and it is justified. Article 21 guarantees Right to Life except the procedure established by law. There are some situations when the crime committed is so grave that it becomes necessary to award this. The crime committed by Ajmal Kasab, or in Macchi Singh's case. or a mass rape case is a very grave offence. And it has been said by Supreme Court that Capital Punishment cannot be abolished and should be awarded in some cases. When accused have some basic human rights, then they should keep in mind the human rights of those persons, who become victim of their offence. Lawcrats #2 Lawcrats Tue, 17 May 11 15:29 Indeed it is awarded in "rarest of rare cases", but how often? Mostly every crime after its execution appears to be of the same nature yet if it is the second time of the crime it is no more rare. How many executions have been made so far in proportion to the death sentences awarded? If I am not mistaken it would be somewhere around 2-3%. Talking of Art. 21, Right to Life has a very wide scope and exception of 'procedure established by law' may seem justified with some of them but not all. Even if it is to be still awarded, and as you mentioned in rarest of cases, don't you think it will become a highly paid business to kill someone big and as it not rarest of rare crime therefore serve the life sentence and its all over. Yeah right, on moral ground Kasab, Macchi Singh, Gang rapists etc. deserves death sentence but once again take a look at our process of law, you commit a crime today, first judgement comes in say 2 years, although Kasab's case was an exception to be reckon as the fastest trial of such intensity, but every day is not Sunday, and next comes in another few years, then to the apex court and last but not the least mercy petition for which we have very genuine example of Afzal guru. So what I mean is after all these things it is around 15 to 20 twenty years later when something concrete happens. What would you call it other than mockery of Capital Punishment? Lastly on your human rights point, we don't follow barbarian law that says, an eye for an eye and blood for the blood, so one punishment may serve the interests of both offense and human rights. cogitasocietatis #3 cogitasocietatis Tue, 17 May 11 17:21 My Dear Friend, when you are talking about the delay in the judicial process , then it is not only in the case of capital punishment, but in every criminal case. Because, it has to be proved very strictly. And it is the court to decide what crimes are rare and they have done their business very good. Recently, they have included Fake Encounter in this category and said it to be a brutal killing. And talking about contract killing! yes they have been considered by the court to be a grave crime and there are elements which are to be fulfilled to categorize these offences. There might be a possibility the crime seems to be a murder is not a murder, but a culpable homicide. Mockery is not in relation to the capital system alone. It is in every area of law from civil to criminal. But, you cannot just invalidate each and every law just because it take time to decide it. There can be various factors behind this. Capital Punishment is there in the legal system to ensure that no one becomes so evil that he would commit such a grave crime which would endanger the whole society. And, by abolishing it, you are defeating the very purpose for which they have created. Delay is present in most of the judicial judgments ranging from contract, family issues, divorce, property issue to murder, rape etc. But, it doesnt mean we should abolish each and every law because of the delay in the procedure. Delay should be rectified and which government is trying to do. Also, for the latest info. Supreme Court has categorized Honour Killings under this category. Scope of rare crimes is increasing day by day, contrary to your opinion saying that there is no rare crime. :) Lawcrats #4 Lawcrats Tue, 17 May 11 19:16 Delay in judicial process of every criminal offense doesn't have the same effect as it has in case of death penalty. No questions on Judge's credibility on deciding upon such matter yet death sentence is not the only punishment justified. Penalizing death sentence to an offender comparatively has more effect on his family than him. May be mockery is not just in case of it yet it has more damaging effect than others. For once consider the risk involved in death penalties. Purpose of a punishment varies as per your perspective, but indeed it is never to punish for your sins rather to make you realize your mistake and make you better person at the same time act as deterrent for subsequent crimes. Scopes may be increasing but that is no solution rather it should be limited to avoid being a mockery all the time and serve the purpose they are there for. cogitasocietatis #5 cogitasocietatis Tue, 17 May 11 20:23 Purpose of punishment doesn't depend on someone's perspective, but it is the law of the land. Terming Capital Punishment mockery means terming one of the established law mockery. Courts are smart enough to look into this issue I think. There exist some grave crimes whose punishment should be capital punishment. Delay in judicial process delays the verdict, so effect would same when we are considering delay. It is after the decision has been taken, capital punishment comes into picture i.e. when delay is ended. Until then, accused is an innocent person only who may or may not get death sentence. And it is a well settled principle that life imprisonment is a general punishment and death sentence is an exception, which is justified. Lawcrats #6 Lawcrats Wed, 18 May 11 01:54 Law of land can't be set out without any perspective. Deducing your statement may lead to a common purpose for all kinds of punishment. Once again no questions on the credibility of the court but again it may grant variable punishments following the existing laws of the land. So abolishing the capital punishment trend could be easily substituted by some other forms of punishment. There I'm sure court can play a good role by taking the initiative. Effect may sound the same in figures but in reality almost everything is different similarly as it was observed in Gilhotra's case. Well let see it this way, once awarded capital punishment by trial court ratified by HC, and then filing an appeal in HC makes a man innocent till he is once again awarded death penalty, sound strange to me. If it is an exception, it should be used as an exception. As a matter of fact awarding it in more than thousands of cases and executing only in few doesn't make it an exception. cogitasocietatis #7 cogitasocietatis Wed, 18 May 11 10:55 Law of Land is made after taking account all the factors which affects the society. The purpose of having law is to maintain the peace of the society, and Capital Punishment is one of its parts. Again saying, court is smart enough on this matter and it has been doing its job extremely well. It is the duty of the court to maintain the check all these things. If capital punishment would be abolished, then a criminal might commit the crime and would spend his life in jail with all the facilities. Exceptions are always there and it has been the view of the supreme court that a judge should be very careful while awarding death sentence. So, Judges do not give death sentence arbitrarily, but after checking the gravity of the crime, which cannot be replaced by any other punishment. Had it been possible to replace it, then court would have done it! Lawcrats #8 Lawcrats Thu, 19 May 11 16:31 Being an Indian I too believe capital punishment should not be abolished, but for the motion, let's not play conservative for once rather act liberal or say wise and take an example of those nations who inspite of abolishing death penalty are developed and less at crime rates. Why stuck to the rules framed in 19th century, when things are way too different here in 21st. As matter of fact, the British regime who framed this law for us was once of the belief that a man should be whipped till death as a mode of capital punishment, how humane was that? Judiciary is not the only organ involved for deciding upon such issues, but legislature,executive, pressure groups, political parties, public opinion etc., all of them have significant role to play. Leave your comment Guest Guest Thu, 29 Sep 11 11:58 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DEATH SENTENCE R.SATISH KUMAR 4th Year, The School of Law and Legal Studies of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University , Delhi. Death penalty has been a mode of punishment since time immemorial. The arguments for and against has not changed much over the years. Crime as well as the mode of punishment correlate to the culture and form of civilization from which they emerge.At this point of time when the issue [whether capital punishment must be abolished or not] is still raging, it will be appropriate to remind ourselves as to how the legislatures and the apex Court have dealt with this issue every time it has come up before them . Another issue is regarding the extent of judicial discretion. Beginning of Death Sentence The Indian penal code was drafted by the 1st law commission of India and it goes without saying that it is one of the most wonderfully drafted laws in India. This is what the authors of the Code had to say about death as a punishment :- " We are convinced that it ought to be very sparingly inflicted, and we propose to employ it only in cases where either murder or the highest offence against the state has been committed. " It may be pertinent to mention here that the Indian Criminal jurisprudence is based on a combination of deterrent and reformative theories of punishment. While the punishments are to be imposed to create deter amongst the offenders, the offenders are also to be given opportunity for reformation. Keeping these theories in mind, the legislatures drafted Sec.354 (3) of the Cr.P.C. This subsection basically lays down that special reasons are to be recorded by the Court for imposing death punishment in capital offences. Thus, the position of law after Cr.P.C. 1973 became that the general rule was life imprisonment while the death sentence was to be imposed only in special cases. Death Sentence Under Different Statutes Capital Punishment is laid down as a penalty in several legislative Acts, such as the Indian Penal Code, 1860, (IPC) and the penalty provisions of national security and anti-narcotics legislation. Under the IPC eleven offences are punishable by death. A death sentence may also be imposed for a number of offences committed by members of the armed forces under the Army Act, 1950, the Air Force Act, 1950 and the Navy Act 1956. Several legislative attempts to abolish the death penalty in India have failed. Before Independence a private Bill was introduced in the 1931 Legislative Assembly to abolish the death penalty for penal code offences. The British Home Secretary at the time however rejected the motion. The Government of independent India also rejected a similar Bill introduced in the first Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament). Resolutions introduced in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) in 1958 and 1962 met with a similar fate; but the Government agreed to forward copies of the 1962 house debates of the Law Commission which was at the time reviewing the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1908. The Law Commission in its Report presented to the Government in 1967 and to the Lok Sabha in 1971 concluded that the death penalty should be retained and that the executive (President) should continue to possess powers of mercy. National discussion about the death penalty has resurfaced from time to time.The Lok Sabha specifically discussed abolition of the death penalty in 1983. While the Prime Minister at the time publicly favoured abolition, her Minister in Home Affairs denied that the Government was considering any specific proposals to abolish the death penalty. More recently the debate over death penalty was reinvigorated when all 26 defendants in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were sentenced to death. In fact in recent years the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) has dramatically extended the scope of the penalty. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985 (TADA) which was extended in 1987 empowered special courts to impose the death penalty for certain broadly defined 'terrorist' acts. Although the Parliament decided to let this hugely unpopular and controversial Act lapse in 1995 it is now considering new legislation, in the form of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill which would reintroduce many aspects of TADA. Use of the death penalty has also been extended through other legislation. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, which prescribes punishment by death for any person who either directly or indirectly abets the commission of 'sati' (immolation of a widow). The Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotopic Substances (Amendment) Act, 1988, introduced the death penalty as a punishment for financing, or engaging in the production, manufacture or sale of narcotics or psychotopic substance of specified quantities (e.g. opium 10 kgs, cocaine 500 gms) after previous convictions. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, introduced the death penalty for fabricating of providing false evidence that results in the conviction and execution of an 'innocent' member of a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe. In April 2000 the Government announced it would consider imposing the death penalty for individuals convicted of rape (Hindustan Times 19 April 2000). It is questionable whether any government would be able to obtain sufficient political support for such further legislative enactments now. Mode Of Execution The execution of death sentence in India is carried out by two modes namely hanging by neck till death and being shot to death. The jail manuals of various States provide for the method of execution of death sentence in India. Once death sentence is awarded and is confirmed after exhausting all the possible available remedies the execution is carried out in accordance with section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure1973 i.e. hanging by neck till death. It is also provided under The Air Force Act, 1950, The Army Act 1950 and The Navy Act 19572 that the execution has to be carried out either by hanging by neck till death or by being shot to death. RELATED PROVISIONS OF Cr.P.C. Section -354(3),(5) -requires that when the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of years, the judgment shall the state reasons for such sentence. Further, when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead. Section-366-When the court of session passes a sentence of death, the proceedings shall be submitted to the High Court, and the sentence shall not be executed unless it is confirmed by the High Court. The court passing the sentence shall then commit the convicted person to jail custody under a warrant. Section-367-When such proceeding are submitted, the High Court thinks that a further inquiry should be made into, or additional evidence taken upon, any point bearing upon, any point bearing upon the guilty or innocence of the convicted person, it may make such inquiry or take such evidence itself, or direct it to be made or taken by the court of session. The inquiry contemplated under s.367 would take in the examination of the accused under S.313(1)(a).When the inquiry or evidence (if any) is not made or taken by the High Court, the result of such inquiry or evidence shall be certified to such court. Unless the High Court otherwise directs, the presence of the convicted person may be dispensed with when such inquiry is made or such evidence is taken. Section-368-No order for confirmation shall be made until the period allowed for preferring an appeal has expired, or if any appeal is presented within such period, until such appeal is diposed of. Section-369-It provides that in every case so submitted, the confirmation of the sentence, or any new sentence or order passed by the High Court, shall when such court consists of two or more judges , be made, passed and signed by at least two of them. Section-370-Where any such case is heard before a bench of judges and such judges are equally divided in opinion, the case shall be decided in the manner provided by S.392. Section-371-In cases submitted by the court of session to the High Court for the confirmation of a sentence of death, the proper officer of the High Court shall ,without delay, after the order of confirmation or other order has been made by the High Court, send a copy of the order under the seal of the High Court and attested with his official signature, to the court of session. Execution of Death Sentence Section-413-When in a case submitted to the High Court for the confirmation of a sentence of death, the court of session receives the order of confirmation or other order of the High Court thereon, it shall cause such order to be carried into effect by issuing a warrant or taking such other steps as may be necessary. Section -414-When a sentence of death is passed by the High Court in appeal or in revision, the court of session shall, on receiving the order of the court, the court of session shall, on receiving the order of the High Court, cause the sentence to be carried into effect by issuing a warrant. Section-415-(1)Where a person is sentenced to death by the High Court and an appeal from its judgment lies to the supreme court under sub cl. (a) or sub-cl (b) of cl.(1) of Article 134 of the constitution, the High Court shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed until the period allowed for preferring such appeal has expired, or if an appeal is preferred within that period, until such appeal is disposed of. (2)Where a sentence of death is passed or confirmed by the High Court, and the person sentenced makes an application to the High Court, and the person sentenced makes an application to the High Court for the grant of a certificate under Art. 132 or under sub-cl.(c) of cl. (1) of Article134 of the constitution, the High Court shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed until such application is disposed of by the High Court , or if a certificate is granted on such application, until the period for preferring an appeal to the Supreme Court on such certificate has expired. (3)When a sentence of death is passed or confirmed by the High Court, and High Court is satisfied that the person sentenced intends to present a petition to the Supreme Court for the grant of special leave to appeal under Articles 136 of the Constitution, the High Court shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed for such period as it considers sufficient to enable him to present such petition. Section-416-If a woman sentenced to death is found to be pregnant, the High Court shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed and may, if it thinks fit, commute the sentence to imprisonment for life. Legality of Death Sentence In the case of Jagmohan V/s State of U.P the question of constitutional validity of Sec. 302, I.P.C. was discussed in detail by the SC. Apart from the constitutional validity, the SC also discussed position in other countries, the structure of Indian Criminal law, various policies and bills proposed in the parliament , the extent of Judicial discretion etc. On the question of constitutional validity the Court observed:- " The Cr.P.C. requires that the accused must be questioned with regard to the circumstances appearing against him in the evidence . He is also questioned generally on the case and there is an opportunity for him to say whether he wants to say ....... In important cases like murder, the Court always gives a chance to the accused to address the Court on the question of Sentence. Under the Cr.P.C. after convicting the accused, the Court has to pronounce the sentence according to law.........." On all these grounds the SC rejected the argument that under Sec. 302, I.P.C., life of convict is taken without any procedure established by law & therefore, it violates Art. 21 of the constitution. Thus , the SC settled this controversy long back in 1973. However even after Jagmohan's case this question came up again and again. The SC reviewed Jagomhan's Case in the case of Bachan Singh Vs. State of Punjab because after Cr. P.C. 1973 , death sentence ceased to be the normal penalty for murder [ 354 (3)]. Another reason was that Maneka Gandhi's case gave a new interpretation to Art. 14,19 and 21 and their interrelationship . Main issues before the SC were constitutional validity of Sec. 302 of the I.P.C . as well as constitutional validity of Sec. 354 (3) of Cr.P.C.. Reasonableness of Death Sentence The SC in the case of Bachan Singh Vs. State of Punjab observed- ".......if not withstanding the view of the abolitionists to the contrary , a very large segment of people, the world over, including sociologists , legislature , Jurists , judges and administrators still firmly believe in the worth and necessity of capital punishment for the protection of society, if in the perspective of prevailing crime conditions in India, contemporary public opinion canalized through the peoples representatives in parliament, has repeatedly including the one made recently to abolish or specifically restrict the area of death penalty, if death penalty is still a recognized legal sanction for murder or some types of murder in most of the civilized countries in the world , if the farmers of the Indian constitution were fully aware of the existence of death penalty as punishment for murder, under the Indian Penal Code, if the 35th report and subsequent reports of law commission suggesting retention of death penalty, and recommending revision of the Cr.P.C. and the insertion of the new sections 235 (2) and 354 (3) were before the Parliament when it took up revision of the Cr.P.C., it is not possible to held that the provision of death penalty as an alternative punishment for murder, in sec. 302, Penal Code is unreasonable and not in the public interest. The impugned provision in Sec. 302 , violates neither the letter nor the ethos of Article 19" . [ Para 132] Whether death Penalty serves any penological purpose? The SC in the case of Bachan Singh Vs. State of Punjab considered a no. of opinions from all over the world . Out of them, the opinion of Sir James Fitziames Stephen, the great Jurist, who was concerned with the drafting of I.P.C. is very important to mention- " No other punishment deters man so effectually from committing crimes as the punishment of death . This is one of those propositions which is difficult to prove simply because they are in themselves more obvious than any proof can make them. In any secondary punishment, however terrible, there is hope, but death is death, it's terrors cannot be described more forcibly. " These views are very strong answers to the people who oppose death punishment with the arguments that it does not serve penological purpose. When can Death Sentence be granted As have been stated earlier, after Cr.P.C. , 1973, death sentence is the exception while life imprisonment is the rule. Therefore, by virtue of section 354(3) of CR.P.C., it can be said that death sentence be inflicted in special cases only. The apex court modified this terminology in Bachan Singh's Case and observed- " A real and abiding concern for the dignity of human life postulates resistance to taking a life through law's instrumentality. That ought to be done save in the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed.." Rarest of rare cases To decide whether a case falls under the category of rarest of rare case or not was completely left upon the court's discretion. However the apex court laid down a few principles which were to be kept in mind while deciding the question of sentence. One of the very important principles is regarding aggravating and mitigating circumstances. It has been the view of the court that while deciding the question of sentence, a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in that particular case has to be drawn. Full weightage should be given to the mitigating circumstances and even after that if the court feels that justice will not be done if any punishment less than the death sentence is awarded, then and then only death sentence should be imposed. Again in Machhi singh vs. State of Punjab the court laid down:- " In order to apply these guidelines inter alia the following questions may be asked and answered: - (a). Is there something uncommon about the crime which renders sentence of imprisonment for life inadequate and calls for a death sentence? (b). Are there circumstances of the crime such that there is no alternative but to impose death sentence even after according maximum weightage to the mitigating circumstances which speak in favor of the offenders?" The principles laid down by the apex court were reiterated in it's latest judgment in Sushil Murmu Vs. State of Jharkhand :- "In rarest of rare cases, when the collective conscience of the community is so shocked that it will expect the holders of the judicial power center to inflict death penalty irrespective of their personal opinion as regards desirability or otherwise of retaining death penalty, death sentence can be awarded." The SC has also discussed such circumstance in various cases. These circumstances include: - # Murder committed in an extremely brutal , grotesque, diabolical , revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community. # Murder- for a motive which evinces total depravity and meanness. # Murder of a Scheduled cast or Scheduled tribe- arousing social wrath ( npt for personal reasons). Bride burning/ Dowry death. # Murderer in a dominating position , position of trust or in course of betrayal of the motherland. # Where it is enormous in proportion. # Victim- innocent child, helpless woman, old/infirm person, public figure generally loved and respected by the community. If upon taking an overall view of all the circumstances and taking in to account the answers to the question posed by way of the test of rarest of rare cases, the circumstances of the case are such that death penalty is warranted, the court would proceed to do so. Judicial Discretion For all the offences, in which death sentence is the punishment, it may be noted that it is not the only punishment, it is the extreme penalty. Thus, these sections, by virtue of their very wordings itself, provide for a discretion which is to be vested in the courts to decide the quantum of punishment. So the ultimate judicial discretion to decide whether death sentence is to be imposed or not , have been vested in courts right from the inception of Penal Code in 1860. However the manner of exercising this discretion has undergone various changes with the changing time and evolution of new principles. There is also a debate going on, about the extent of this judicial discretion. Wide discretion In Jagmohan's Case the SC held :- " The structure of our criminal law which is principally contained in the IPC and the CR.P.C. undertakes the policy that when the legislatures have defined an offence with clarity and prescribed the maximum punishment, therefore a wide discretion in the matter of fixing the degree of punishment should be allowed to judges." Thus the SC was in favour of wide discretion to be given to judges for deciding the degree of punishment. However, this vide direction was restricted by section 354(3) of Cr.P.C. 1973 which laid down the law that for death sentence special reasons are to be recorded , meaning thereby , that death sentence is to be imposed in special cases only. In a case the court observed :- " The discretion to impose the sentence of death or life imprisonment is not so vide after all section 354 (3) has narrowed the discretion . Death sentence is ordinarily ruled out and can only be imposed for special reasons Judges are left with the task of discovering ' Special reasons'. In the case of Dalbir Singh V/s State of Punjab the court expressing its concern for the way in which this discretion was being used . " Notwithstanding the catalogue of grounds warranting death sentence as an exceptional measure, 'life' being the rule , the judicial decisions have been differing (and dithering) at various levels with the result the need for a through re-examination has been forced on courts by counsel on both sides" . . In Bachan Singh's case this problem was solved by the apex court itself to a very large extent.The court observed: " It is imperative to voice the concern that courts, aided by the broad illustrative guidelines indicated by us, will discharge the onerous function with evermore scrupulous care and humane concern, directed along with high road of legislative policy outlined in Sec. 354(3)....." Need For Guidelines A brief analysis of the cases decided by the SC. Regarding the question of death sentence over last 25 years, will reveal how differing/dithering the judgments have been. In Kurami alias Mutha vs. State of Tamil Nadu , the accused was a poor agriculturist and had a wife and five children to support, but considering the murder of two persons as brutal the death sentence was confirmed but this case was before Bachan Singh's case, and till that time the principle of aggravating and initiating circumstances was not laid down. While, in a brutal and dear case of bride burning the S.C. observed :- " From the judgment of the High Court, it is apparent that death sentence is awarded more out of anger than on reasons.... Judicial discretion should not be allowed to be swayed by emotion and indignation. Ultimately the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment." In 1994, while deciding the case of Anshad Vs. State of Karnataka , the SC Commuted death sentence to life imprisonment while the accused was convict of a brutal, diabolical murder. The sentence was commuted because the SC felt that there are chances of reformation of accused. With due respect to the court's view, it is submitted that there still remains a question creating doubts on such judgments as to how to judge the chances of reformation of an accused in a particular case. However, it can be done on the line of SC's judgment in Javed Ahmed Abdul Hamid passawa VS. State of Maharastra on this case. The death sentence of accused was affirmed in 1983, but later, on the basis of serious atonement., the SC commuted the sentence to life imprisonment . Then comes the very important case of Mohd. Chaman Vs. State (N.C.T.) of Delhi . In this case a one and half year old girl was raped by the accused, and because of the henious act, she sustained serious injuries and died. H.C. confirmed the death sentence awarded by the sessions Court. But the Hon'ble SC commuted the death sentence into life imprisonment, observing :- "The crime committed is undoubtedly serious and heinous and the conduct of the appellant is reprehensible . It reveals a dirty and prevented mind of a human being who has no control own his carnal desires.... We are not persuaded to accept that the case can be called one of the ' rarest of rare cases' deserving death penalty. We find it difficult to hold that the appellant is such a dangerous person that to spare his life will endanger the community. It is our considered view that the case is one in which a humanist approach should be taken in the matter of awarding punishment " Can it be said that justice was done ? In order to avoid controversies and to put forward their liberal approach, Judges often change the degree of offence avoiding the guidelines laid down by the apex court itself. This should not happen.It is the basic duty of a judge to render justice in-toto and while doing so he shall not get affected by any surrounding circumstances or controversies which may arise in future . But this is an idealistic approach and cannot be followed completely . Indian legal system is no different and it seems that the judges also get prejudiced with their surroundings and social circumstances ,. This could be the only reason that we see such different approaches being taken by different judges in offences of similar nature. In the case of Mohd. Chaman, on the question of extent of judicial discretion, the court observed :- " Such standardization is well nigh impossible . Firstly degree of culpability cannot be measured in any case. Secondly criminal cases canno tbe categorized there being infinite , unpredictable and unforeseeable variations . Thirdly in such categorization, the sentencing procedure will cease to be judicial . And fourthly , such standardization or sentencing discretion is policy matter belonging to the legislature beyond the courts functions" . Despite the fact that full discretion is given to judges, in ultimate analysis, it can safely be said that such wide discretion has resulted into enormously varying judgments, which does not portray a good picture of the justice delivery system. What is needed to be done ; therefore ; is to revise and review the guidelines and principles laid down in cases like Bachan Singh or Machhi Singh, or if it is felt that these guidelines still stand firm and fit perfectly in the present social scenario, then these guidelines have to be strictly complied with, so that the persons convicted for offence of similar nature are awarded punishments of identical degree. The Indian Supreme Court had another opportunity to rectify its position, when the case of V. Mohini Giri v. Union of India (2002 AIR SCW 5306) was argued before it in 2002. In this case the petitioner had sought "the issuance of a guideline as to what should be the appropriate approach in the cases where one of the judges in the Bench of this Court while hearing an appeal against death sentence, acquits the accused person". The Apex Court declined issuing such a guideline arguing that it would curtail the judicial discretion of the bench. Death Sentence For The Offence Of Rape In April 2000 the Government announced it would consider imposing the death penalty for individuals convicted of rape (Hindustan Times 19 April 2000) Stressing that leniency in punishing grave crimes would have serious consequences the supreme court has awarded the death penality to a man for the rape and murder of a six year old girl.[State Of Uttar Pradesh Vs.Satish 08.2.2005] Mitigating Circumstances The court in its discretion, may take into consideration, the following circumstances as mitigating, on the basis of which the lesser punishment can be imposed: 1. That the offence was committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional distribution; 2. If the accused is young or old, he shall not be sentenced to death; 3. The probability that the accused would not commit criminal acts of violence as would constitute a continuing threat to society; 4. The probability that the accused can be reformed and rehabilitated ; The state shall by evidence prove that the accused does not satisfy the conditions (3) and (4) above; 5. That in the facts and circumstances of the case, the accused believed that he was morally justified in committing the offence; 6. That the accused acted under the duress of domination of another person; 7. That the condition of the accused showed that he was mentally defective and that the said defect impaired his capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct. Mitigating circumstances indicated above are undoubtedly relevant circumstances and must be given great weight in the determination of sentence. Conviction of a minor The ordinary sentencing applicable to adults will no longer be applicable in the case of juveniles. The Juvenile Justice Act defines the term "juvenile" as a boy who has not attained the age of 16 years, or a girl who has not attained the age of 18 years. As per sec. 22 of the said Act, no delinquent juvenile shall be sentenced to death or imprisonment or committed to prison in default of payment of fine or in default of furnishing security. In State of UP Vs Samman Das where the accused were persons below the age of 18, the Supreme court on account of the youth of the accused, imposed the lesser punishment of life imprisonment on them. Conviction Of A Pregnant woman Section-416 of Cr.pc. provides "if a woman sentenced to death is found to be pregnant, the High court shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed and may, if it thinks fit, commute the sentence to imprisonment for life." This provision is necessitated by the fact that if a pregnant woman is sentenced to death, it would result in the killing of the foetus also. After the child is delivered, if the mother is executed, it will orphan the child and the child will be punished for no fault of hers. Lesser Sentence To Co- Accused In cases where there are more than one accused, and murder has been committed by several persons, under section 34 of IPC, the act done by one will be considered to be acts done by all. So if a lesser sentence of life imprisonment is awarded to one accused, then the co-accused should also generally be given the same sentence, unless it can be established that the role of any one of them in the commission of the crime is more that of others. In Wazir Singh Vs State Of Punjab the Supreme Court held that the distinction made in the matter of sentence between the two accused was not justified. The death sentence of the other accused was also reduced to one transportation of life. Delay in execution of the death sentence Delay in execution of death sentence is a factor which may be taken into consideration for commuting the sentence of death to life imprisonment. In the case of Smt Triveniben Vs. State of Gujarat the Supreme Court held that "....undue long delay in execution of the death sentence will entitle the condemned person to approach this court will under Art 32, but this court will only examine the nature of delay caused and circumstances ensued after sentence was finally confirmed by the judicial process…..No fixed period of delay could be held to make the sentence of death in executable. Recent Cases Dhananjoy Chatterjee alias Dhana vs State of West Bengal & Ors.. The appellant, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was found guilty of offences punishable under Sections 376, 302 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code by judgment and was awarded death sentence by the session judge, confirmed by the High Court .A special leave petition was filed by the appellant .Leave was granted but the appeal was dismissed by the supreme court. Sushil Murmu Vs. State of Jharkhand A young child of 9 years was sacrificed before Goddess Kali by the appellant for his own prosperity is what the prosecution alleges.The supreme court awarded death penality to the accused. State of U.P. Vs. Satish Stressing that leniency in punishing grave crimes would have serious consequences the supreme court has awarded the death penality to a man for the rape and murder of a six year old girl. International Scenario Consensus towards abolition As of June 2004, a total of 118 countries (including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Russia, South American nations and most European nations) have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Of these, 80 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, fifteen countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes (such as wartime crimes) and 23 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice, i.e., they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past ten years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. Though 78 countries retain and use the death penalty, the number of countries which actually execute prisoners in any one-year is much smaller. One hundred twenty nations decided to establish a permanent International Criminal Court (which came into force in July 2002) to try individuals for the most serious offences of global concern, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Consistent with international human rights standards, the International Criminal Court cannot impose a death penalty but instead can award lengthy terms of imprisonment of up to thirty years or life when so justified by the gravity of the case. Non-unanimous death sentence verdicts may thus flout the obligation of nations to ensure the most rigorous standards for fair trials in capital cases. Unanimity of Verdict: The Global Position Given the abolition of the death penalty in Europe and a number of other nations including Canada, Australia and Mexico, the question of unanimity has been rendered superfluous in these states. A number of other states which continue to award the death sentence require a unanimous verdict by all judges. Even in countries of the Commonwealth that retain the jury system - Malta, Ghana, Anguillas, Guyana and the Bahamas - a unanimous verdict is essential for a death sentence. Indeed common law follows a strong tradition of commuting a death sentence to life in the case of a non-unanimous verdict. Though the death penalty is imposed frequently in the United States of America, (more than 900 people have been executed since 1976 and 3500 more await a similar fate), the law is clearly in favour of unanimity. Criminal cases are tried by a twelve member jury and after the landmark judgment in Ring v. Arizona (536 US 584 (2002)), the jurors reserve the power to decide the sentence. No person may be awarded the death sentence except by the unanimous verdict of a twelve member jury (Ch.228, S.3593(e)3 Title 18, Part II US Code). This is the law - in criminal as well as federal cases - in all 38 states that have retained the death penalty. In US Martial and Military Tribunal Courts, the Uniform Code of Military Justice notes that a death sentence can only be handed out with unanimity of opinion of a five member panel that tries the case. The panel must agree that no other sentence is more appropriate than death. In addition to such safeguards, the convening authority has the power to reduce - but not increase - the sentence and set aside a finding of guilt. The Law Council of Australia has reported that even the Military Commissions set up to try Guantánamo Bay detainees will follow the same procedure and therefore can only unanimously impose the death penalty. Previously, even the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals set up after the Second World War have required unanimity. (See Law Council of Australia) In South Asia - Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have abolished the death penalty either in law or practice. However Pakistan and Bangladesh retain the death penalty and follow the majority rule in awarding death sentences. In the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1977, the seven-judge bench sentenced the former Prime Minister and former President, Mr. Bhutto to death by a majority verdict with four judges in favour of the death sentence. Conclusion With growing international consensus towards abolition of the death penalty, India's continuation of award of non-unanimous death sentences is equivalent to taking steps backward. Fair and reasonable procedure is a vital safeguard for the enjoyment of human rights - more so where people are charged with crimes punishable by death. Under international human rights standards, such accused are entitled to the strictest observance of all fair trial guarantees and to certain additional safeguards. The requirement of unanimity of judges in imposing death sentences could act as an additional safeguard.

Thane Mental hospital lines up occupational therapy, coffee helps beat the blues, dying declaration not always reliable,

Thane mental hospital lines up occupational therapy Published: Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011, 8:00 IST By Santosh Andhale | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA The Thane Mental Hospital is setting up a special occupational therapy project where patients who complete treatment will be trained to make agarbattis to be sold under a special brand: Manas Agarbatti. Hospital authorities feel such a move will keep those who have completed psychiatric treatment engaged throughout the year instead of making seasonal items like greeting cards and lamps. Apart from agarbattis, patients will also be trained to make eco-friendly Ganeshas, demand for which has risen since last year. According to senior doctors, most patients who spend two-three months in treatment return home with no job prospects. To help them regain confidence, such vocational training becomes significant. “For this project, we will set up a centre with 25 people. A bus will pick up and drop them from the hospital to railway stations and bus stops. An agarbatti brand is ready to offer training on making and marketing the agarbattis,” said Dr Kumvat. He added that the Annirudha Bapu Trust is ready to offer lessons on making eco-friendly Ganesh idols. Another firm is ready to award a contract to the hospital for making paper plates. The centre is expected to start operations during the Mental Health Week from October 3 to 10. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coffee helps beat the blues http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=21&edlabel=TOIBG&mydateHid=28-09-2011&pubname=Times+of+India+-+Bangalore+-+International&edname=&articleid=Ar02102&format=&publabel=TOI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Dying words can't convict hubby of killing' (10 Views) The Times of India - ‎ Tue Sep 27, 2011 MUMBAI: A is not enough to a man who is in the dock for setting ablaze his wife, the has ruled. A division bench of Justice D B Bhosale and Justice M L Tahilyani acquitted Pune resident Ashok Kamble giving him the benefit of the doubt, as his wife's four dying declarations did not convince them. Last words not always the last word A Supreme Court judgment has raised questions about convicting an accused on the basis of a dying declaration. Saheli Mitra reports Mahila Raj Kunwar was beaten and driven out of her house by her husband Babulal. Years later, she got married to Chattar Singh, but her happiness was short-lived. Babulal tried to murder Singh with the help of hired goons. Singh gave a dying declaration to the police on the basis of which a first information report (FIR) was lodged against Babulal and his associates. And the apex court convicted the accused in 2004 on the basis of Singh’s dying statement. That was then. In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court held that “where there is inconsistency in a dying declaration, and where sufficient corroborative evidence is absent, conviction of accused cannot be made on the basis of the dying declaration”. So, are dying declarations no longer relied upon by the court of law to bring charges against the accused? “Dying declarations have long been a tool to prosecute, at times the sole means of prosecution. Section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act says a dying declaration can form the sole basis of conviction, provided such declarations are voluntary and not tutored,” observes Ahindra Kumar Auddy, senior lawyer, Calcutta High Court. “But due care and caution must be exercised in considering how much weight the court will give to a dying declaration and also the circumstances under which it was made,” he adds. In the recent judgment in the case of Nallapati Sivaiah vs Sub-divisional officer, Guntur, AP, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of the Supreme Court held that it was “unsafe” to convict a person on the basis of a dying declaration when suspicion has been raised about the “correctness” of the statement. In this case, the deceased had sustained 63 injuries and it was argued that it was impossible for such a person to give a dying declaration. Even the chief medical officer, under whose supervision the statement was made, was not questioned as a witness. So there was no proof whether the doctor had deemed the patient physically fit to give a declaration to the police. Criminal lawyer Alok Kumar Mitra recalls cases where the investigating authorities tutor the dying person to nail certain people or even ask him not to speak against the accused. “There have been instances where the police have forcefully extracted dying declarations from someone for their vested interests. In such cases the court has to look for some corroborative evidence by treating a dying declaration only as one piece of evidence. And, definitely, the court always has to be on guard to see that such statements are not the result of tutoring or prompting, or a product of someone’s imagination,” he says. Then why do courts appreciate such evidence? Why is it a settled principle of law that a dying declaration is substantive evidence and an order of conviction can be safely recorded? The law of the land lays down that “any sanction of the oath in the case of a living witness is thought to be balanced at least by the final conscience of the dying man. Nobody would wish to die with a lie on his lips”. The law says that a person who “stands before his creator” would be the last one to lie. The observation has been quoted in the recent judgment by Supreme Court judges R.V. Raveendran and B.Sudershan Reddy in the case mentioned earlier. The judges have also mentioned there is a legal maxim Nemo Morfturous Praesumitur Mentire, meaning that a man will not meet his maker with a lie on his lips. “Even dying declarations recorded before a magistrate are governed by certain safeguards,” points out Amiya Chakraborty, member of the Supreme Court Bar association. “The magistrate must ensure that the declarant is in a proper mental state. He must consult a doctor about the fitness of the man,” adds Chakraborty. However, it will depend on the court what value it gives to a dying declaration. It has to assess the circumstances, including the weapon with which the victim was injured, the nature and extent of injuries, the victim’s physical and mental condition, and also if the declaration suffers from any serious contradictions or flaws. Not every dying statement, clearly, can be a declaration. Burning facts • There is neither rule of law nor of prudence that dying declaration cannot be acted upon without corroboration. If the court is satisfied that the dying declaration is true and voluntary it can base a conviction on it, without corroboration. • The court has to scrutinise the declaration carefully and must ensure that the deceased had the opportunity to observe and identify the assailants and was in a fit state to make the declaration. • If a dying declaration is suspicious it should not be acted upon without corroborative evidence. • In cases where the deceased was unconscious or was not in a position to make a dying declaration, the evidence with regard to it is to be rejected. • A dying declaration which suffers from flaws cannot form the basis of conviction. • A dying declaration cannot be rejected just because it does not contain details. • It cannot be discarded merely because it is a brief statement. • Normally the court in order to satisfy whether the deceased was in a fit mental condition seeks medical opinion. But if an eyewitness has said that the deceased was in a fit and conscious state to make this dying declaration, the medical opinion cannot prevail. • Where the prosecution version differs from the version given in the dying declaration, the said declaration cannot be acted upon. Top Email This Page Print This Page ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Woman attempts suicide from 50 ft cell phone tower, Another MBA hangs self and leaves a recording of the act

Woman attempts suicide from 50 ft cell phone tower near Thane Prison date Sept 28th, 2011 Unable to raise Rs.2 Lakh for her 11 year old visually impaired daughter's eye operation, Swapna Perriera(45), a widow, resident of Vileparle, climbed a 50 ft BSNL tower near Thane Jail and attempted suicide on Tuesday afternoon. She claims to have written letters to the PMO and CM's office for support .The entire incident took place around 1.30 pm near Thane Jail where she had gone to visit her incarcerated brother-in-law, amidst both police and public. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MBA hangs herself on cellphone camera V Narayan, TNN | Sep 29, 2011, 03.01AM IST Article Comments Read more:S L Hujband|Nidhi Singh|MIDC|MBA hangs Tweet MBA hangs herself on cellphone camera A 24-year-old management professional hanged herself at her home in MIDC, Andheri (East), on Tuesday. MUMBAI: A 24-year-old management professional hanged herself at her home in MIDC, Andheri (East), on Tuesday. Nidhi Singh committed suicide between 9.45 am and 10 am soon after her husband Samdashi (25), an assistant manager at a private bank, had left for work. "She recorded her suicide on her cellphone. She also left behind a note, which was in Hindi but scripted in Roman alphabets, holding no one responsible for the act. She also apologized to her husband," said MIDC senior police inspector S L Hujband. "Besides, she mentioned she wanted to be a part of both her and her husband's family in her next birth and did not want to hurt anyone." The cellphone footage is 1.33 minutes long. In it she says she was depressed and had regrets about her love marriage, which took place in February. "The couple hail from Uttar Pradesh and was staying in the rented flat (on the first floor of Golden Apartments, Kondivita Lane) for four months," Hujband said. When Singh's father did not get an answer after repeatedly calling her till Tuesday evening, he asked a distant relative, who too resides at MIDC, to check if things were right with her. "Our relative contacted me at my workplace and said my wife was not responding to my father-in-law's repeated calls," read Samdashi's police statement. "Around 9.30 pm, I went along with my relative to the flat. But when my wife did not answer the knocks, we informed the police. The fire brigade was called and they broke open the door to find her hanging from the ceiling." The police said that Singh had frequent arguments with her husband. "But the suicide note, which was found by Samdashi when he searched the house, did not indicate any ill-treatment from him," Hujband said. "Samdashi said that around 9.30 am, when he was leaving for work, Nidhi requested him to talk with her for 10 minutes. He complied but she again tried to stop him. He ultimately left as he was getting late for work. Around 10 am, he received an SMS from her saying 'sorry'. But he did not take it seriously." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suicide bid may no longer be a crime, Can't blame lovers tiff for suicide

Suicide bid not a crime? Centre seeks states' views Source: Kanu Sarda, DNA | Last Updated 13:15(22/09/11) IAF begins inquiry into suicide of sacked woman officer New Delhi: To review the law that prescribes punishment for those who attempt suicide, the Centre told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that it has sought responses on this issue from all the states. Additional solicitor general (ASG) AS Chandhiok told a division bench that the Centre was waiting for the response from all the states because if changes had to be made, then they would be made constitutionally. The court has asked the government to file a detailed response by December 7. As per the present provisions of the IPC, a person attempting suicide can be punished with a maximum jail of one year. The court was hearing a petition filed by an NGO, Mental Health Foundation, which demanded that recommendations in the 2008 Law Commission report be adopted. The report says individuals who attempt suicide should not be punished and they should be treated sympathetically. It was determined that provisions of Section 309 were harsh and unjustified and must be repealed. "Individuals who attempt suicide need to be helped. Imprisonment makes their condition grave and worse," the petition filed by advocate Aditya Shankar stated, adding that the present section was failed to appreciate the sensitivity and compassion required to deal with individuals who have already suffered much trauma in life and have to undergo another round of suffering. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Centre to consider repealing suicide bid as penal offence Posted on: 22 Sep 2011, 07:55 PM ShareThis « Previous Next » Suicide bid will not be a penal offence? Suicide bid will not be a penal offence? left right Suicide bid will not be a penal offence? New Delhi: With 25 out of 29 states favouring decriminalisation of the attempt to commit suicide, the Centre has told the Delhi High Court that it is willing to consider repealing suicide bid as a penal offence. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna was apprised of the Centre's willingness to consider repealing section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes suicide bid a penal offence, by its Standing Counsel Jatan Singh. Singh stated this during hearing of a public interest lawsuit by Mental Health Foundation, an NGO, seeking decriminalisation of suicide bid. "The IPC being a major criminal law, piecemeal amendment to the act may not be practical proposition. Therefore, the recommendation of the Law Commission in its 210 report for deletion of Section 309 of IPC will be given due consideration while considering the next batch of comprehensive amendment to IPC," Singh told the court. He indicated a time frame of over a year for the move, saying "the government plans a comprehensive amendment to IPC, CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) and Evidence Act in a year." The Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in an affidavit, told the court that the criminal law is a Concurrent List subject and it has received various states' opinions on the issue of repealing Section 309 of the IPC. The government has decided to consider their opinion as maximum number of states have supported repeal of Section 309 IPC (attempt to commit suicide), the affidavit said. "25 Indian states out of 29 have favoured striking down Section 309 of the IPC that criminalises attempt to commit suicide by making it punishable with imprisonment. They have agreed to the recommendation of the Law Commission for deletion of the provision," said the affidavit. "The government of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim are not in agreement with the recommendation and Jammu and Kashmir states that the law is not applicable to it," said the affidavit, filed in response to the Court’s notice on the lawsuit seeking deletion of the provision. Under Sec 309, anyone who attempts to commit suicide — or does any act towards committing such an offence — is liable to be punished with a one-year simple imprisonment or fine or both. The Mental Health Foundation's lawsuit has sought repeal of Sec 309 contending that it is "inhuman" and against the Fundamental Right to life under the Constitution. "A person, if convicted for attempting the suicide, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both, the penal provision prescribed," the lawsuit stated. "It is a manifestation of a diseased state of mind and it's unfair to punish persons who had already taken a decision to take the extreme step," it said seeking direction to the government to comply with the Law Commission recommendation. (Agencies) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home About Gallery Submit Article Team FusionZone Campus Buzz! Entrepreneurship Fiction of my MIND Poems Stories Fusion Board AutoMotive Books Fashion Gadgets and Tech Movies Music Relations Incredible India Just for Fun Open House Random Soul Curry Speak Up! Talent Corner The Indian Fusion Whats Up..?? Business Education Entertainment Environment Life & Style Science Sports Technology RSS Feed Subscribe via E-mail LET’S STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! Speak Up! | admin | May 12, 2011 at 12:47 am Fraternity Attendance Scanners Impulse Depression Sign Signs of depression E Mail LETS STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! EVERY TIME A PEDESTRIAN IS RUN OVER BY A CAR. IT’S NOT ALWAYS THE DRIVER’S FAULT! IIT B Student had short Attendance in 3 courses.. CGP : 4ish out of 10. He commits Suicide. Prof’s and System are Blamed. IIT Kanpur Post Grad Student can’t get a Job in campus placements. He Commits Suicide. Recently an IIT M Student gets BTP Extension. Spirals into Depression. Commits Suicide. Prof. is under Scanner. Let’s ask a few questions before we begin to get Sentimental about yet another Suicide ? Should Ganguly have committed Suicide when he was given an Indefinite extension after being dropped in 92 ? Would you have blamed the BCCI for crushing the ambitions of a 22 year Old? But Ganguly didn’t commit Suicide. He Waited! Couldn’t the Gentlemen in IIT M have waited too ? ( And with all due respect to IITans, Pressure on Cricketers is infinitely higher.) So, How is some one’s act of Impulse the System’s Fault ? Moving On… In 2005, one of the very early cases of Student Suicides an IIT Bombay Student Vijay Nakula committed suicide, for getting XX grade (which means you would have to repeat the course because of attendance shortage) in 3 courses among other reasons. Tomorrow Let’s say a Professor commits suicide for lack of attendance of Students in HIS class. Let’s say, he got depressed for that reason.. Let’s say, he is giving his best, still no one is attending the class. Would you blame the Student fraternity in the colleges for not being serious about Studies… Would you be willing to blame the System ( Markets in this Case) ? Would the Student Fraternity be willing to go for all the Lectures to prevent any more Prof’s from going into Depression and any subsequent suicides? Take your guess. My guess is No. My Guess is an Emphatic, NO!!!!! LETS STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! Professor writes a mail mentioning the list of people to be awarded Fail Grade. Student commits Suicide after finding his name in it. Argument. The E Mail was Harsh!! If tomorrow a Critic trashes a movie, Can the lead Actor commit suicide citing a harsh review in his defense.. Would you buy that ? Why are we glorifying Suicides in IIT’s ? Why are we projecting them as Victims of the System? For somebody who takes HIS own life for a BTP Extension. I am sorry to say is a Victim of his own Choices ! ( Whatever may have been the Circumstances) So let’s stop projecting these Students as Martyrs. For it creates a False Precedent. A sort of Suicidal Peer Pressure (Pardon the Phrase, but true) among the Students to come. I call it the Induction effect of committing suicides. SUPPOSED CAUSES OF SUICIDES. People Blame Academic Pressure for these Suicides. Oh It’s too Stressful. I ask, WHY SHOULD IIT BE EASY? You feel you can take it, fine. Else Quit. Everyone is fine with the Goods which IIT tag has to offer.. The Campus Placements for Majority, and the other Fringe Benefits of being an IITan. A Default Respect in the Society among other things. So why shouldn’t you be made to earn every cent of it ? You find the Pressure Enormous…Quit IIT!! Do something else. Why Quit your Life? If you choose to stay in IIT ! Play by the Rules. LETS STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! THE PARADOX BEHIND VARIOUS POPULAR REASONS FOR STRESS Some Students blame the number of tests and quizzes in IIT. Which is ironic because when the same Students were preparing for IIT JEE, most of them would opt for Multiple Test Series. FIITJEE, Bansal, Resonance…That time you couldn’t have enough of them! So why have the tests suddenly become a Problem ? You Graduated out of the same system.. People say, Oh the moment you come into IIT, there is a sense of loss of Identity. Toppers in their respective Batches are now no longer toppers. Well the same happens when you start JEE preparation. Toppers from Various Schools, Join a Coaching Institute, where most of them no longer remain toppers… So why are the same constants suddenly a problem.. ? LETS STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! THE WORLD DOESN’T OWE YOU A LIVING! IT WAS HERE FIRST An IIT K Student doesn’t get a Campus Placement. He commits Suicide. The Argument given to his friend before ending his life was, Itni Mehnat kari, Itne number laaye.. Phir bhi Job nahin lagi! ” Can a Hockey Player commit Suicide for the same Reason.. “ Yaar Itni Mehnat kari, Itne goal kiye, phir bhi Advertisement nahin mile! ” Job Nahin Mili, Suicide kar li? What bothers me is the mindset of some of the Students that IIT somehow owes them a LIVING! No it doesn’t. Nor does the World!! You didn’t create that Brand. Your Predecessors did. So how does IIT owe you anything? IIT is an Educational Institute. Not a Life Insurance! LETS STOP GLORIFYING IIT SUICIDES! SO CALLED FRIENDS!!! The friends of the person who committed suicide are the first to criticize the system. I say, If you were such a good friend, why didn’t you make sure he attended the lectures, when his attendance was getting short. why didn’t you drag him to classes ? If he hates the classes, why didn’t you help him find what he loved doing? He got extension because his project got delayed, Why didn’t you make his project report. If you think the system pressure can often lead to suicide.. Didn’t you see your friend’s suicide coming when he was failing in courses and missing deadlines? In one sentence you blame the System and the Pressure, when you did nothing to help your friend though it ? And the worst part is, none of the friends had an inkling of what was about to come! So much for being a Friend. WHICH SYSTEM IS AT FAULT? Which system is at Fault ? If you choose to highlight these 3 Suicides, I can show you 20 people in the same batch who have done exceedingly well.. Some may be under the same Prof, who is under the Scanner. 3 out of 5000. In Science that’s not called a System Error. That’s called Standard Deviation. Darwin would have dismissed the same, with his “Survival of the Fittest” Argument. You could call me Cold, or Apathetic, or Ignorant or anything you want to, but if you are really serious about ending these Suicides. My Humble Request is Stop Glorifying Every Suicide. For Every time a Pedestrian gets run over, it’s not always the Cars Fault. Assuming that’s it’s always a Drivers Fault is a matter of convenience. Not Fact! May be it was error of Judgment on the Student’s Part. Who Knows? May be all those Students who committed suicide are regretting it now in Heaven. May be the recent IITM guy is thinking, ” I could have waited!” May be that Kanpur guy who jumped thought in Mid Air, “What the F*** did I do? I should have fought this?” That Girl who hung herself, while wincing in pain on the rope, ” God I don’t want to die! Give me one more chance!” Who is to know ? May be they are hating themselves in Heaven. I mean, “I just couldn’t live with myself knowing I had just killed myself.” In that Scenario would the present Arguments against system and Professors still be Valid? HUMAN SOLUTIONS. People have suggested all sort of Solutions. Ban the LAN. ( Internet) Reduce Work Load/ Academic Stress Counseling Sessions. Now that we have failed with the seemingly Necessary Logical Solutions. Let’s try a Human Solution! Suicide is an Impulse Decision… So, I don’t think we need to Subtract or Reduce anything. We need to add something to the system. Girls. Women. ( Don’t succumb to you Impulse Judgment. Read Along) May be all Students need ( keeping all things constant) are some Women, or Emotional Stabilizers as I call them. Most Married Men would testify the importance of their Partner in testing times. May be that’s why they say, Behind Every Successful Man there is a Women. There are things men tell their girlfriends, they would never tell their best of friends. A 2 Month old Girl Friend knows more about you than the best of your Friends. The Truth is, People are not comfortable sharing their Secrets with even the best of their Male Friends.. 1 Because you are constantly seeking their approval, Especially the ones who are closest to you.. So your best friend is often the last person you would confess your problem to. 2. Sometimes you might look upon your friends as competitors. 3. May be you don’t have a Real Friend… So you can’t confess your problem to your Best Friend. You won’t tell a person who don’t think is Close enough. You can’t talk to your Parents. Very Few of us share our problems with our Parents.. For you don’t want to make them tense or let them down (Sounds almost Ironic after the eventuality though) Who is Left ? No Wonder None of those friends or the family Saw any of those suicides coming!! My Guess is a Feminine Shoulder might have helped. MAY BE.. May be Women are the answer, for IIT’s given their skewed Sex Ratio are Social Concentration Camps, Especially in that Age! For boys as well as Girls. (It’s actually worse for girls than for guys!) So May be the answer lies in doing something about that Social Imbalance*** (Conditions Apply) May be it’s just that some of the torch bearers of the Intellectual Elite might happen to be Emotionally Challenged… May be Minds good at Numbers are not too good in analyzing situations, where No Numbers are involved. May be the whole problem is that the people in question didn’t have a Confidante..Because the problems in most cases looked pretty manageable in hindsight. May be the underline problem is Loneliness!!! The Silent Killer! May be that’s why so many Silently passed away, without even their closest Friends knowing.. May Be…. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. *** : Having Said that, I am well aware that Women might not be a Necessary or a Sufficient Constant for Emotional Well Being for Some People and Vice Versa… So, I don’t mean to say this is THE SOLUTION. But it might be a part of THE SOLUTION, we all are looking for..The whole point is, Student Suicide is like the Multi-variable Problem in Mathematics. There are as many Variables as the Number of Individuals….. So No One Solution would Fit all…Some Solutions might even sound trivial in the context of the whole problem.. Like the small evolutionary steps which eventually led to Evolution of Species. Seemingly Unimportant small changes/additions, but when Integrated over time, led to LIFE!! To Integrate my Partially differentiated thoughts: The Solution to this Problem might not be in (big radical changes in system)/REVOLUTION. It might lie in simple EVOLUTION! It’s Evolution that gave LIFE to our Planet. It could do the same to our Educational Institutes! So, Women Idea is my seemingly Unimportant small addition, but may be when Integrated over time, might lead to a SAVED LIFE!! – Nitin Gupta The author Nitin Gupta is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Bombay famous for creating a Cult Play ‘Love In December’. Fresh out of Campus, he got an offer to perform on Laughter Challenge, the opportunity which he later turned down! The reason is a simple mission .He founded Entertainment Engineers , to make Stand Up Comedy respectable in India and to create a humor Renaissance in this country. Humor he says, ought to have an emotionality to it. We not only want people to laugh and think, we want them to LAUGH, THINK and FEEL at the same time. T.V. was not the medium to do that. So Nitin took to the Stage, College Festivals, Corporate Shows. And in a short span he has already enthralled the Audiences in some of the Biggest College Festivals in India, IITs, NITs, IIMs their Alumini Meets and various FORTUNE 500 Companies. A Guest Speaker at various E- Cell Platforms and Marketing Conclaves. A TED Favorite. He is widely considered as the most Original Orators and Stand Up Comic of Present times. This post is from his published notes and all due credit is paid to the Author. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Can't blame lovers' tiff for suicide: Court Deeming broken promises and the occasional reprimand as part of domestic life, the trial court on Tuesday27 sept, 2011, aquitted a software engineer on charges of abetting the suicide of his girlfriend seven years ago.Following a fight , the accused Saikat Chanda, had told her 'Ja suicide kar le(go commit suicide)' following which the girl, a PhD student at JNU hanged herself. According to the court verdict the explanation was " It so transpires that the deceased committing suicide was hypersensitive to ordinary petulance, differences and discord in domestic life quite common to the society in which she belonged." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Students stress,suicide, work stress and youngsters

Minor sets herself on fire after rape bid in Mumbai Published: Thursday, Sep 22, 2011, 3:03 IST By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA A 14-year-old girl set herself on fire on Wednesday after a 57-year-old man molested and tried to rape her in Dahisar. She has suffered 40% burns and is recuperating at the Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli. According to police, the girl tried to kill herself after her mother scolded her for visiting the accused.The accused has been arrested. The police said the accused, Dhanraj Gupta, works as a security guard and resides alone at Rawalpada area in Dahisar (East). His wife and children lives in his native Uttar Pradesh. “The girl is a neighbour of the accused. The girl and her younger brother spent most of the time in Gupta’s house,” said a police official. “Slowly Gupta started taking advantage by touching her private parts,” said the officer. “Last Friday, Gupta took an aphrodisiac pill and when the victim came to his place he started molesting her and later stripped her and tried to rape her,” said the official. But her younger brother saw Gupta with his sister. Then he went home and informed his mother. “Instead of consoling, her mother started scolded her saying why she went to Gupta’ house. The girl then set herself on fire when her mother went out for some work,” said the officer. “The girl’s siblings were playing outside the house and seeing smoke in the house they rushed and found her burning. They informed her mother and neighbours, who doused the fire and saved her. But she sustained 40% burns and is recuperating at the Bhagwati Hospital,” said Additional Commissioner of Police Ramrao Pawar (North Region). “We have arrested Gupta under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” Pawar said. Gupta has been remanded in police custody for two days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 91-year-old doctor hangs self in south Mumbai flat HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times Mumbai, September 27, 2011 Email to Author First Published: 01:12 IST(27/9/2011) Last Updated: 01:13 IST(27/9/2011) Share more... 0 Comments Email print A 91-year-old retired doctor committed suicide at his south Mumbai residence early Monday morning. Pratap Shroff hanged himself in the bedroom of his fifth floor apartment in Zorawar Bhavan at Maharshi Karve Road, CST. He did not leave a suicide note. Police sub-inspector S Pawar from Azad Maidan police station said, “The deceased resided along with his family comprising his wife son and daughter-in-law. The deceased was suffering from high blood pressure and related ailments which, we suspect, may have driven him to suicide.” The police said Shroff’s body was found around 5 am on Monday following which he was rushed to Bombay hospital where he was declared dead before admission. The Azad Maidan police have registered an accidental death report and are conducting further inquiries. “Currently, Shroff’s family members are in a state of shock, hence we have not taken their statements. We will wait for things to settle down and then get some more information. No foul play is suspected,” added an officer from the Azad Maidan police station, requesting anonymity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Missing med student couldn't cope with studies ? The curious case of two MBBS students going missing from the campus of BYL Nair hospital in a span of nine months could point to the underlying pressure associated with the medical profession and the inability of some students to cope with it. College authorities are wondering if this is another case of a student dropping out due to pressure. 'Students who were average in their school days , but managed to find a seat in a medical college , usually struggle to cope with studies" - Dr Pravin Shingare, Joint Director, JIPMER. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Students go missing to escape exam phobia Nikhila Henry, TNN Sep 8, 2011, 02.42am IST Tags: Vizianagaram| Exam phobia HYDERABAD: Is pressure of private education in the state too much for students to cope with? It seems so as several students go missing from private junior colleges for fear of facing examination and failure associated with competitive skill testing. According to police records collected from various districts in AP, where main branches of many private junior colleges are located, about 12 to 15 students go missing every year only to be sent back to the same college by parents who want them to prepare for competitive examinations. For instance, Edupugallu, located between Vijayawada and Guntur, known as the coaching capital of Andhra region had registered 12 missing cases of junior college students who had run away fearing examinations in 2010. In another case, Vizianagaram, which hosts over 50 junior college coaching centres has recorded about six police cases filed by parents of missing children. Even in Hyderabad the number of missing complaints filed by parents went up to three in the past two years, the most recent case being that of a student from a Vanasthalipuram-based junior college going missing about three weeks ago. Police officials say that the trend has been catching up for the past five years, with the competition for admissions in IITs, IIITs and medical colleges becoming tougher year by year. "Two percent of all the missing cases filed are that of students who run away from junior colleges due to failure to cope with pressure from parents and classmates," said G Srinivas, SP, Vizag, which has many junior colleges and coaching centres. He added that the students usually go missing for just two to three days. However, pressure of studies and exam fever are not the only reasons behind the missing cases. Students who had gone missing from colleges earlier said that they were worried about being harassed continuously for not faring well. "It is the humiliation that I was worried about when I decided to leave the campus. I couldn't stand being insulted in front of my friends for doing badly in examinations," said Sahit Kumar, a student from Hyderabad, who went missing recently from a corporate college in Hyderabad. Junior college officials, however, said that in most cases students who do not like the subject from the very beginning quit the course. Police officials explained that those who run away do so soon after they fail in an examination or two. The students unions helping parents to find their missing children said the police records reflect just about 15 percent of the actual number of missing cases. "Most parents get worried that they children might not get an admission when they get back and hence refuse to register a police complaint. Most cases that reach police are also later settled between the management and parents," said G Eswaraiah, state president of All India Students' Federation (AISF) who helped book a missing case in Vanastalipuram police station ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why do teens turn to suicide? Superstar scientist tries to find out anne mcilroy OTTAWA— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Sep. 26, 2011 8:15PM EDT Last updated Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2011 10:46PM EDT 105 comments Email Tweet Print/License Decrease text size Increase text size This is part three of the The Globe and Mail's special series confronting an agonizing enigma of teen suicide - the second leading killer of teens in Canada. Read part one here, part two here and part four here. She was a brilliant student from a poor family. Neighbours in her village raised the money to send her to a prestigious university in Beijing, but the 19-year-old struggled with her courses and became depressed, then tried to kill herself. A month after her second suicide attempt, she met a scientist who had been invited from Canada because he suspects what makes the brains of people like her different. If he is right, it may be possible to identify young people most at risk and develop drugs or therapies to save their lives. As one of the first volunteers examined by researcher Georg Northoff, the young woman had a brief introductory interview, then her brain was scanned as she was asked a series of simple questions: Where would she be in a year? What might make her happy then, or sad? She thought hard, but in the end, just didn’t know what to say – and Dr. Northoff wasn’t surprised. Her inability to see herself in the future fit with his theory that there is a biological explanation for why people lose hope. At 48, Dr. Northoff is a scientific superstar with a remarkable skill set. Recruited from his native Germany by the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, he is, as well as a medical researcher, a psychiatrist and a philosopher. He was lured to Canada two years ago with more than $1-million in grants plus a prestigious research chair. A year into his new position, a rash of teen suicides in Ottawa and its surroundings prompted an outpouring of concern and a desire to take action that spurred him to intensify his efforts to understand the hopeless brain and to find new ways to identify and treat young people at high risk of taking their own lives. Having already started in China, he is now putting together a parallel study, expected to begin next year in Montreal or Toronto. His visits to Beijing are at the request of the Chinese government, which has come to see suicide as a serious public-health issue. The country has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, but only 15,000 psychiatrists to serve a population of 1.3 billion. One survey found that fully 20 per cent of 140,000 high-school students who were interviewed said they had considered suicide. Sitting in his Ottawa office, Dr. Northoff uses quick sketches and graphs on scrap paper to map out why he wasn’t surprised the young woman couldn’t see herself in the future. As a psychiatrist, he treated many patients who seemed stuck in time, and research led him to a radical theory: that this is due to dysfunction in part of a key network in the brain. Called the default mode or resting state network, it includes components in the cleft between the brain’s two hemispheres that fire up when a person is lost in thought, doing nothing in particular. Neuroscientists aren’t sure what, exactly, the network does, but there is strong evidence that it plays a role in people’s sense of who they are and their relationship to their bodies and environment. Dr. Northoff says that because it also provides a continuum of time into which new experiences are integrated, he suspects it’s central to envisioning the future. There is growing evidence that abnormalities in this network are related to many types of mental illness. Dr. Northoff found that, in patients with depression, one part of the network behind the forehead is hyperactive, with far higher levels of activity than is normal. This is especially pronounced in those totally caught up in themselves, he says. A healthy brain stops resting as soon as it is stimulated, but in those of depressed people, “when the stimulus comes, it has no effect at all,” Dr. Northoff says. “That is why they feel so detached.” His research (the Canadian study is still before an ethics-review board) will also explore the neurochemistry of hopelessness. He suspects the balance between gaba and glutamate, two chemicals in that part of the brain, may be the key to the hyperactivity in the network behind the forehead. He says that “it is like in diabetes, when the balance between glucose and insulin doesn’t work any more.” So drugs may be able to restore the balance, just as new approaches to psychotherapy could help those with “time continuum” problems learn to look ahead. “The healthy person always takes the future for granted,” Dr. Northoff says, but those who are suicidal can’t see the end of the tunnel. “They just see a dark hole, that’s what many patients describe.” For example, the brilliant 19-year-old who tried to kill herself after her marks began to fall considered a year in the future “an eternity for her that she couldn’t imagine,” Dr. Northoff says. But shorten the time frame to a month and she seemed much more aware of what might be in store. “It was mainly … ‘How do I face my parents?’ ” he adds. “It was all about that – and the shame.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Teen suicide: ‘We’re not going to sit in silence’ erin anderssen Globe and Mail Update Published Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011 6:00AM EDT Last updated Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2011 10:46PM EDT 191 comments Email Print/License Decrease text size Increase text size Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers in Canada, and the start of school is a particularly high-risk time for vulnerable youth. This week, The Globe and Mail presents a special series confronting an agonizing enigma. Amid their pain, victims’ families are defying stigma and bringing the issue to light as never before. Read part two here and part three here and part four here. More related to this story Do we need a national strategy against teen suicide? Teen suicide: Warning signs, resources and help for concerned parents LIVE DISCUSSION Suicide and Canada's youth: Your questions and commentary Seventeen year old Rachel Alexander, who has been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety disorder poses for a photo in her bedroom at home in Bell's Corner near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Video Suicide: A survivor’s story RESOURCES Youth suicide in Canada: Prevention strategies by province A year ago today, Gary and Mindy Nelson went to work, believing that their 16-year-old son, Ben, was going to catch the school bus. Four months earlier, the family had moved to the country from Ottawa, hoping to draw Ben away from his “dark thoughts,” as he called them. Unlike his older sister, Ben wasn’t a Starbucks kid; perhaps he would be happier in open spaces where he could ride his motorcycle on the dirt roads, see the stars at night and start fresh in a new school. So they moved into a rambling farmhouse in Ashton, bought a flock of chickens and took solace on the rare days when they heard Ben whistling or saw him with his new cat, Gray, draped like a stole around his neck. They thought it was the right choice then. Now, they don’t know, and never will. On the morning of Sept. 24, 2010, Ben circled back to the house, went out to a shed beside the house and took his own life with his great-grandfather’s antique gun. He didn’t leave a note. “I always think of him making that walk. What was he thinking?” Mindy says, her voice straining. “I can’t conceive of it.” In Ottawa and the surrounding rural area, a shocking number of families are still trying to understand why their children made similarly terrible choices and what they could have done to prevent it. In June last year, six young people died at their own hands in small towns southwest of the capital – stoic, old-fashioned places where most parents still worry far more about kids driving home in the dark from bush parties than about problems like depression or anxiety. At least two more suicides followed last September. The victims were mostly young men, some in their early 20s, current and former students. None of them knew each other, at least not well. This seemingly random scattering of loss points to the complexity of suicide, which is not confined to a “type” or any particular circumstances. By the time the suicide of 14-year-old Daron Richardson, the daughter of Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson, made headlines in November, communities were scrambling to prevent more deaths, without really knowing how. Teenage suicide remains a maddening enigma. Though rates in Canada have declined since the early 1980s, it is still the second-leading cause of death among teenagers, after car accidents. Numbers are small; in 2007, the most recent year with available data, there were 218 suicides of people between 10 and 19. But the idea that even the smallest percentage of teens could feel so hopeless and bereft makes families fear what their own children may be concealing, holed up in their bedrooms with Facebook. The start and end of school years may be particularly vulnerable times for at-risk youth, some studies say. Just this week, in Mississauga, a 16-year-old boy killed his best friend, in an apparent act of unrequited love, and then jumped off an overpass. Last weekend, in Buffalo, N.Y., 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself after years of bullying; months earlier, he had posted a video to the It Gets Better anti-bullying (and anti-suicide) website, describing the taunts he had faced. He urged listeners, “Just love yourself, and you’re set.” He was found dead outside his home on Sunday morning. And then there is the story of 17-year-old Jesse Graham, who happily posed in Ray-Bans and black tie for his Grade 12 prom in Balderson, near Perth, Ont., then decided, days later, to hang himself in the dark. According to University of Ottawa psychologist Darcy Santor, at least 91 per cent of suicide victims are suffering from some form of mental illness at the time of their deaths, though it may not have been diagnosed. The danger rises exponentially the more risk factors are present: depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, bullying, social isolation, learning disabilities and often, at the root, shame. But even more so than adults, adolescents with mental illness face long waiting lists, a shortage of psychiatric beds and are often misdiagnosed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After all, what teenager doesn’t slam doors and keep secrets, sleep too much or too little, fail tests, and suffer meanness or heartbreak? Large numbers of high-school students also say in surveys that they ruminate, however fleetingly, about suicide. So what makes the few who do take their own lives so different, and how might they be found, and saved? If society could figure this out, the benefits would be vast, for every teenager who has teetered on the edge and the families they would leave behind. As a vital starting point, some survivors are coming out and talking about it – Daron Richardson’s father and her mother, Stephanie, went public immediately after her death. They and several other families also willingly shared their experiences and reflections with The Globe and Mail. In the face of the stigma that has surrounded suicide from the days when it was classed as a criminal offence, families are beginning to defy the long-held fear that simply saying the word will cause more deaths to occur, like a cough spreading a cold. In Carleton Place, Ont., this month, a fundraising run was held in the name of a teenage suicide victim named Brett Pearson, who died in 2006, and a band played in a field outside the high school afterward so people could linger – an event hard to imagine even five years ago. “We’re not going to sit in silence,” said Jesse Graham’s mom, Shelly, who joined the run. “That’s why kids are dying.” Out of the blue? “When the music’s over, turn off the lights,” 17-year-old Jesse wrote in the early morning of June 18, 2010, quoting Jim Morrison in the note he left for his parents to find in his bedroom. “They say that high school is the best time of your life,” he continued. “Well, high school is over. My music is done. … I’ve lived my life to the fullest.” The next morning, his father, Jeff, noticed the lights on in the basement where Jesse slept, and found his son hanging from a beam in the ceiling. The family was stunned. They knew Jesse had been going through some issues the past year, switching friends, drinking more heavily and doing drugs. His grades were sliding. In a family of six kids, the Grahams had already raised three other teenagers, creating the kind of home where kids’ friends turn up randomly at dinner time. They assumed Jesse was testing boundaries, lectured him on grades and gave him some space. Earlier that spring, he had suggested to his mom that he might have attention deficit disorder; their doctor prescribed him a drug similar to Ritalin, which seemed to help with his concentration. But as for real warning signs? According to his parents and his older sister, Kelsie, there weren’t any. Jesse was by all accounts funny and smart, a drama-club kid with a protective circle of long-term friends. He had been bugging his dad for the truck so that he could take a girl on a date that Sunday. He spent his last night with an old friend from his church youth group, Derek. On the way home, they bought six discount movies at a video store. The two of them went down to the basement; after Derek left around midnight, declining an offer to stay over, Jesse stayed up, drinking and texting, alone. Along with individual mental illness, suicides also do reflect social and cultural conditions. Patrice Corriveau, a researcher at the University of Ottawa, has been analyzing and cataloguing every suicide note left by a self-inflicted death in Quebec going back more than 100 years – a project uniquely possible in the province because a coroner’s inquest is mandated for every suicide. He has found, for example, that in the late 1800s, long before “teenagers” were a recognized social category, the young people most likely to die from suicide were unwed girls who found themselves pregnant. In the 1930s, it was young men from Europe who had failed to find their fortune in the new land, or young husbands who had lost their fortunes and killed themselves out of shame. 191 comments Email Print/License Decrease text size Increase text size Teenage suicide is a phenomenon of more recent and, paradoxically, more prosperous decades, coinciding with the invention of teen culture (and its inherent peer pressures), higher divorce rates and declines in religion, though researchers are careful not to blame any one cause. The rate among teenage boys is twice as high as girls, but that’s largely because boys use more lethal means – girls actually attempt suicide more often. Global suicide statistics are difficult to compare, but Canada falls in the middle of the pack – well below Finland or New Zealand, yet higher than Britain or Brazil. Suicide rates are generally higher in wealthier countries, where, researchers theorize, a failure to measure up in the midst of relative success is more devastating to the human psyche than being poor among the equally poor. Shockingly, Canada’s youth-suicide rate per capita is nearly triple that in the United States, although our youth homicide rates are much lower – facts partly explained by the high suicide rates in Canadian native communities, particularly in the North, and, respectively, the high rates of handgun violence in American inner cities. Much of what we understand about suicide is the result of hindsight, finding what was missed only afterward, when it is too late to prevent it. These “psychological autopsies” have got us closer to understanding the population-wide risks, but not much better at identifying individuals. In about one-quarter of the cases, the families report no signs of trouble until a psychologist goes digging, says Antoon Leenaars, a leading expert on suicide and past president of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. “I spend a lot of time with families who say, ‘We never saw anything.’ But people simply are not taught what to look for.” A psychological autopsy of Jesse Graham, for instance, reveals a picture of a boy in trouble. After a local paper ran a photograph of Jesse’s suicide note, a leading expert in dyslexia contacted the Grahams to say she believed Jesse had suffered from the reading disability, which would have compounded his frustration at school, adding another possible ingredient to his stress. (Jesse’s 13-year-old brother, Jarred, has since shown signs of the same disability.) Looking back, it seems likely that what his parent saw as teenage angst was a deeper form of depression and anxiety. One close friend, Krystal, who was in Jesse’s grade and lived with the Grahams for months after he died, says he often kicked himself for drinking and doing drugs, and worried he didn’t have time to turn around his grades. “He thought he couldn’t get back up, couldn’t fix things.” Since his death, other friends have spilled a darker secret – that he had mentioned suicide on several occasions up to a year before he died, which not surprisingly is one of the strongest predictors. But as Krystal explains, “People my age don’t go to adults to talk about things.” Another friend, Kevin, who was worried about Jesse’s drug use, says, “How can you betray a friend’s trust like that? But at the same time, when does the trust get null and void by the seriousness of the situation?” Put all the pieces together, and the “typical teenager” portrait dissolves – Jesse’s apparent cheerfulness starts to look forced and his rebellion becomes self-medication. The afternoon before he died, he attended the wake of an 18-year-old who had died by suicide the week before, someone he hardly knew, who had been a grade ahead of him at school. Krystal passed Jesse on the steps, and thought it odd that he was there: “He looked so sad.” But the place was packed with students and not all of them had been close to the victim either. The research on what’s called contagion – the idea that one suicide can be a form of “permission giving” to others – is ambiguous, and certainly too broad to pinpoint individuals at risk. Grieving friends experience first-hand the devastation that suicide causes, which is believed to be a deterrent. However, people who are susceptible to contagion may identify with the suicide victim from a distance – and teenagers, more likely to be influenced within a peer group, would be particularly vulnerable. Even if Jesse’s decision to attend the wake had alarmed his family, though, his behaviour afterward would have reassured them. His co-workers at McDonald’s said he seemed down, in hindsight, but he had made weekend plans – to spend time with Derek, to watch those movies, to go on that Sunday date. That’s part of why his sister Kelsie believes that his suicide was a rash decision, made after a few drinks, without considering the consequences. “My brother did something really stupid,” she says. “He didn’t think it through.” Indeed, while mental illness sets a teenager on the track for suicide, the act itself is often highly impulsive. In 2001, researchers in Houston interviewed 153 young people 15 to 24 years old who had survived a serious suicide attempt. They were asked to estimate the amount of time between when they had decided they wanted to die and when they actually attempted it. In 70 per cent of the cases, the time was less than an hour. In 25 per cent, it was barely five minutes. For Jesse, it’s impossible to know. But perhaps he hoped someone would stop him. That night, he posted a “goodbye” message on Facebook for anyone to read. And not long after Derek arrived home, he received a strange text: “Will you be my pola bearer?” Only later would he realize that Jesse had misspelled “pallbearer.” Asleep, Derek missed a second message, found on his phone when the police knocked on his door the next morning: “You’ve always been a good great friend. Goodbye.” Nowhere to turn Not knowing is one thing. But what happens when you suspect a problem but can’t get help? Another one of the June, 2010, wave of suicide victims was 16-year-old Kyle Leron-McCready, who jumped off an overpass not far from his grandmother’s house in Orleans, a suburb east of Ottawa. He didn’t leave a note, but the trigger for his family is no mystery: That morning, a teacher had called his house and told his grandmother, Althea House, that he had failed two exams. Ms. House passed the message on to Kyle, a decision she now regrets. She was on the phone looking for him when the police arrived. Kyle’s family had known something wasn’t right: His grades were slipping, he never brought any friends home and he slept all the time. When he played on his hockey team, he sat by himself and left immediately after every game, never wanting to socialize. Kyle’s mother, Samantha, was living in Toronto at the time. When he lived there, Kyle had started refusing to go to school or get out of bed. “At first it was frustrating,” she says, ”then frightening.” She sought help from mental-health services, but finally decided to let him move back to the capital, where his grandmother and father lived. In Ottawa, Ms. House says she raised concerns with the school and with her family doctor, but nobody wanted to call it depression. Her suggestion that he might need medication – often a controversial course for adolescents – was rebuffed. “You can’t blame it on anyone,” Kyle’s grandmother says. “But the people who should know don’t have the knowledge.” Even she, a public-health nurse, wasn’t thinking about suicide. “I was worried about him losing another semester of school.” When she was finally able to get him into see the school psychologist a few weeks before he died, she was told that “there were no immediate concerns.” But maybe, she says, no one was listening closely enough, seeing Kyle simply as a behaviour problem, an indifferent student who would put on his earphones during class. In the white noise of his bad attitude and lacklustre school record, was something missed? As she learned from her days in palliative care, Ms. House says, “pain is what the patient says it is, not what I think it should be.” But she adds, carefully, “Nobody did anything malicious. People just didn’t know.” The Nelsons, on the other hand, already had known they had demons to chase: Ben had tried to commit suicide before, in January, 2010, skipping school and chugging cough syrup by the train tracks near their west-side Ottawa neighbourhood; he had thrown up after the first bottle, and later confessed what he had done to his parents. They found him a psychiatrist, who put him on an antidepressant. They relaxed on school, especially the math that gave him so much trouble. Even when they found pot in his room, they let it slide. “You feel like you are walking on eggshells all the time,” says Mindy. At the farm he appeared to be getting better, and when school began he found new friends. But at home he didn’t talk much about his feelings. “You didn’t get a lot of echo from him most of the time,” Gary says. You had the feeling, he says, that Ben “had bricks piled on top of him.” His parent felt helpless, trying to buoy him up with shawarma dinners and movie nights at home, and not to leave him alone for very long. They hesitated about sharing the full story with his new school (although they did give some details) – they didn’t want to violate Ben’s confidence, and weren’t sure how the information would be handled. “I feel we were working in the dark, stumbling around,” Mindy says. In a journal started after Ben’s death, Gary calculated the number of days he had with his only son: 6,007. Not nearly enough. Rebuilding and reaching out “I forgive you that you didn’t tell me you were in such pain,” Shelly Graham wrote recently in a letter to her lost son. “Please forgive me for not hearing.” And yet, it seems, more and more people are listening. In Lanark County, committees have been struck to try to build a plan for prevention and intervention. With every family that comes forward, another one is inspired to do the same. Across the country, Facebook memorial pages remain alive with birthday wishes and memories, months and years later, suggesting a fledgling vehicle for a real discussion. What’s more, the families are reaching out to their children’s peers – on Kyle Leron-McCready’s birthday, his mother went to Ottawa and invited a few of his friends; they spent hours talking in his bedroom, where his last load of laundry still sits unfolded on the floor, and his hockey trophies stand on the shelves. Going even further, after opening the Grahams’ home to Jesse’s heartbroken friends, Shelly is taking a course so that she can run a program on grief for youth. “I had no idea, the hopelessness that’s out there,” she says. “And kids telling me they had suicidal thoughts. They don’t know how to deal with loss and disappointment.” Finally, today at the Nelsons’ place in Ashton, on the anniversary of their son’s death, they are hosting a party, inviting Ben’s friends out to the farm. Maybe they will share some of his secrets, or a few of their own. “I hope they tell me something I didn’t know about Ben,” Mindy confesses. “I want to know him better.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Work stress forcing youngsters to call in sick more than the aged PTI | Sep 27, 2011, 01.56AM IST LONDON: The fast-paced modern workplace seems to be taking its toll on younger employees, as they are twice as likely to miss work because of illness as their older colleagues, according to a new survey. more Times of India ( 9/26/2011 12:33:29 PM -08:00 ) How sick do you have to be to stay home from work? How sick do you have to be to stay home from work? By Community Team A survey of British workers has found that workers under the age of 30 are twice as likely as those 55 and older to call in sick when they are suffering from a cold, flu, allergies or stress. Those under 30 are also more likely to more CBC.ca ( 9/26/2011 9:43:23 AM -08:00 ) Are young people more likely to call in sick? Are young people more likely to call in sick? What does it take for you to call in sick to work? Photograph: Stock4B GmbH/Alamy Young workers have different attitudes towards missing a day's work through illness to their older colleagues, according to a new survey. Eighty-five per cent of over-55s more The Guardian ( 9/26/2011 4:31:10 AM -08:00 ) Younger workers twice as likely to call in sick LONDON: The fast-paced modern workplace seems to be taking its toll on younger employees, as they are twice as likely to miss work because of illness as their older colleagues, according to a new survey. A poll of 3000 adults in the UK found that more more Economic Times ( 9/26/2011 3:36:54 AM -08:00 ) Younger people twice as likely to call in sick Younger people twice as likely to call in sick Younger people are twice as likely to miss work through illness as their older colleagues, according to a new survey. By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent Under-30s are more likely to stay at home while suffering from colds and flu, allergies and more Telegraph.co.uk ( 9/25/2011 9:44:03 PM -08:00 ) Younger workers twice as stressed as their parents, survey shows YOUNG PEOPLE ARE far more likely to experience work-related stress than their parents' generation, according to a new survey. Some 55 per cent of employed people under 30 said work pressure was a significant stress factor, compared to 24 per cent of more thejournal.ie ( 9/26/2011 10:20:56 PM -08:00 ) Stressed under-30s 'more likely to take sick days' Stressed under-30s Today's fast-paced working environment is taking its toll on the younger generation, says a new UK survey of 3000 people. The study by probiotic company Multibionta found that in the past year, 72 per cent of under-30s surveyed said they took at least more MSN NZ News ( 9/26/2011 8:05:03 PM -08:00 ) Poll shows workers under 30 more likely to call in sick than older employees The new generation of people heading into the workforce are more likely to take a sick day with a cold, compared to the older generation. A new poll conducted in the United Kingdom found that, in the past year, 72 per cent of workers under 30 years of more 680 News ( 9/26/2011 1:59:31 PM -08:00 ) Younger people more likely to call in sick London, Engand, United Kingdom (AHN) – It appears today's fast-paced, work hard, play harder lifestyle is taking its toll on the younger generation. Workers under 30 are twice as likely to stay at home when they are suffering from a cold, flu, more Gant Daily ( 9/26/2011 8:27:00 AM -08:00 ) Under 30s Twice As Likely To Call In Sick Workers under 30 are more likely to stay at home with a cold or flu than the over-55s, a survey has revealed. The poll of 3000 people found that less than half of those over 55 had taken a day off for a cold in the last year compared to more than two more Huffington Post UK ( 9/26/2011 4:22:54 AM -08:00 ) Calling in sick? You must be under 30 Calling in sick? You must be under 30 Workers under 30 are more likely to phone in sick than their older colleagues, with one in five saying that a hangover is a reason to stay at home, a new study reveals. The younger generation appears to allow itself time off work for stress, more TNT Magazine ( 9/26/2011 12:49:42 AM -08:00 ) Lazy or more health conscious? Under 30s 'twice as likely to call in sick with Lazy or more health conscious? Under 30s Workers under 30 are twice as likely to take time off if they have a cold than the older generation, according to a survey. A poll of 3000 adults found the fast-paced modern workplace is taking its toll on younger workers. more Daily Mail ( 9/26/2011 12:18:19 AM -08:00 ) Under-30s twice as likely to miss work due to illness than over-55s A new survey has found that younger people are twice as likely to miss work through illness as their older colleagues. According to the figures, under-30s are more likely to stay at home while suffering from colds and flu, allergies and intolerances more BioScholar News ( 9/26/2011 10:30:47 AM -08:00 ) Younger people more likely to call in sick It appears today's fast-paced, work hard, play harder lifestyle is taking its toll on the younger generation. Workers under 30 are twice as likely to stay at home when they are suffering from a cold, flu, allergies or stress than those 55 and older, more AHN | All Headline News ( 9/26/2011 8:29:51 AM -08:00 ) Lazy or more health conscious? Under 30s 'twice as likely to call in sick with The fast-paced modern workplace is taking its toll on younger workers, a survey has revealed - but the older generation are just getting on with their jobs. A poll of 3000 adults found more than two thirds of under-30s took at least one more