Hyderabad, April 04: The people of Andhra Pradesh are bugged by problems of sexuality more than any other malaise. That’s the picture you get from an analysis of calls to the state’s most popular health helpline, 104.
A whopping 55 per cent of the total calls received by the 24-hour health helpline are related to sexuality. Sleep disorders are next in hierarchy.
The emergency helpline run by the Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) was set up to address the health concerns of disadvantaged sections. It receives more than 50,000 calls per day. A team of counseling psychologists advise callers on sleep disorders, sexuality issues (homosexuality, pregnancy, love, attraction, etc) and myths relating to HIV and tuberculosis. “The majority of calls coming from youngsters in the age group of 14-35 are related to sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV,’’ said HMRI chief executive officer Balaji Utla. ‘’Since we started the helpline three years ago, of the 5 lakh calls we have received, 2.75 lakh were related to sexuality issues, 0.93 lakh to sleep disorders and another 0.30 lakh calls concerned myths related to diseases.’’ Calls to ascertain the number of sleeping pills required to commit suicide are a regular occurrence, say officials. Many a time, the counselors call back suicide callers to keep a check on them.
Almost 90 per cent of the callers call from mobile phones, so it is easy to track them. “Calling on the helpline gives callers a sense of anonymity and they talk about their problems without hesitation. That could be a reason for the calls related to sexuality,” explained Utla.
–Agencies