NEW DELHI: Over 1,110 soldiers, airmen and sailors took the extreme step of ending their lives over the last decade, once again underlining the need for much better suicide prevention interventions in the over 14-lakh strong Indian armed forces.The defence ministry says several measures have been taken over the years to reduce stress among military personnel , ranging from counseling, yoga and grievance redressal mechanisms to improvements in food, clothing, married accommodation and a much more liberalized leave policy.But clearly, much more needs to be done. Latest figures show there were over 895 suicides in the over 12-lakh Army in the 2010-2019 timeframe, followed by 185 and 32 in the much-smaller IAF and Navy , respectively.Mental stress among military personnel, especially among active-duty ones, is of course a global problem. The US military forces, for instance, are currently grappling with a record high suicide rate, with as many as 541 cases in 2018. The suicide rate among active-duty troops was 24.8 per 100,000 personnel, up from 21.9in 2017.While it is true that the suicide rate in the Indian Army works out to just about half of India’s rate of 16.5 suicides per 100,000 people, it is nevertheless worrying in the highly-disciplined environs of the force because suicides can be largely prevented through effective intervention policies.Soldiers don’t have to deal with abject poverty, unemployment, farming distress or other factors that makes India’s suicide rate the highest in the entire south-east Asian region, as per the World Health Organization .But protracted deployment along the volatile border with Pakistan as well as counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East does take a toll on the mental health and physical endurance of soldiers.Soldiers posted in forward or “field areas” also undergo tremendous stress for not being able to take care of the problems facing their families back home, which could range from property disputes and harassment by anti-social elements to financial and marital problems. “Earlier, the news from the home-front came periodically. Now, they get updates 24x7 through mobile phones, which have certainly added to the rise in stress levels,” said a senior officer.“Moreover, police and civil district administrations around the country are largely unresponsive to grievances of soldiers and their families. A battalion commander could earlier talk to the civilian district authorities to resolve personal problems of his soldiers but that is no longer the case,” he added.Soldiers also have to contend with lack of basic amenities, relatively poor salaries, denial of leave and other such problems. A study by the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) some years ago had also noted that the “perceived humiliation and harassment, over and above their occupational and familial causes'', at the hands of their superiors often served as the final “trigger'' for soldiers to commit suicide, as was then reported by TOI.The defence ministry says “domestic and personal problems, marital discord, stress, health issues and financial problems” have been identified as “the major causes” behind suicides in the armed forces in several studies conducted by DIPR since 2006.