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Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 18 (IANS) Efforts to bring down suicides in Kerala seem to be paying off as the suicide rate in the state came down from 30 percent in 2001 to 25.25 percent in 2010, Social Welfare Minister M.K. Muneer said Monday. "We have begun counselling for adolescent girls, which is being funded by a central government scheme. We are also running de-addiction camps with support from other agencies," Muneer told the state assembly. Kerala is number two in the country in terms of rate of suicide per year, while Chhattisgarh is number one among states with a suicide rate of 26.5 a year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau data for 2011. "In our state (Kerala), 42 percent people took their lives on account of family problems, followed by 16.9 percent due to health related issues, 5.2 percent owing to financial issues, 3.4 percent due to some form of addiction, 1.6 percent due to failed love affairs and 15.7 percent on other account," said Muneer. The minister was replying to a calling attention motion submitted by C.P. Mohammed of the Congress party. Muneer also claimed that there have been reports that suicide cases were not given prominence by the media. C.P. Mohammed urged the minister to ensure that the number of existing helplines to deal with suicide cases in the state be increased.
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