Photography and the Written Word for Suicide Prevention

People across Odisha were invited for pitching in their bit to prevent suicide and make this world a shade better than it was yesterday through original write-ups and photographs. This was a part of our initiative in collaboration with the New Indian Express and 93. 5 Red F.M. for the fifteen day-long suicide prevention campaign. There was an enthusiastic response with over two hundred entries consisting of short stories, poems, slogans and photographs, with prizes for the best ones which were given out at the final event in the East Coast Railway Auditorium by Mr. A. Sarangi (Director, BPSPA).

The winning pieces for poetry in Odia, Hindi and English were by Swagat Rout, Bhuvanesh Kumar Pradhan, Rahul Kanugo respectively. The second prize in the Hindi and English categories were bagged by Bhabani Prasad Nayak and Ayushi Acharya.

The prize for best picture was awarded to Rupesh Kumar Pasayat for his sketch.

For story writing in English, Sushree Rath, Sarah sharma and Sumedha Ray got the first, second and third prizes.

Swagat Rout and Ritam Ray got the first and second prizes, respectively for slogan writing in English.

Here are some other pieces which we felt deserved a special mention- poetry by Mitra Samal and Vinay Thakur; a story by Pranab Mahapatra and a picture by Subha Riti

The overwhelming participation gave us a sense that we as a society are ready to be open about suicide, that we see the urgency in why it should be looked at which is the very first step in trying to move forward and hopefully resolve this issue.