Rethinking Pesticide Suicide Prevention in Southeast Asia Region: Strategies Beyond Bans

Suicide prevention is one of the key targets for all countries mandated under the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. Amongst several methods of suicide, abusing agrochemicals for self-harm is commonplace in Eastern societies. Undeniably, pesticide selfpoisoning has reached gargantuan proportions and has become a public health problem in Southeast Asian countries and more particularly in India. A complete ban on Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) as categorized by WHO seems to be a simple solution but the pesticide industry and the governments have their own reservations. One important argument put forward by them is that these agrochemicals are essential for agricultural productivity, which is primal to solve the hunger problem for the society at large. Hence, it is important to explore alternative strategies beyond bans to tackle this pesticide suicide in the interest of all. This paper explores the use of technology and predictive AI-based surveillance for pesticide abuse risk and integrating it with tele-counselling, along with proper gatekeeper training for vendors, to enhance prevention efforts.