Bengaluru: Call it burdening work schedule or unable to cope up with professional and personal commitment, the fact is that the state Police department, which is running acutely short of manpower, stands second in South India when it comes to suicides by police personnel and fifth in the country.

As per ministry of home affairs (MHA) records, 39 cops ended their life in Karnataka between 2012 and 2014. Karnataka recorded 17, 15 and 7 suicides by cops in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. While Tamil Nadu recorded 116 cases during the three year period, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh recorded 32 and 23 cases each.

Further, the MHA states that the factors in most suicide cases were personal and domestic problems such as marital discords, personal enmity , mental illness, depression etc.

In a few cases, work stress/harassment from seniors were found to be the reason.

But, most men in Khaki differ stating that though the reasons for suicide have been mostly personal, the work pressure can aggravate stress levels significantly.

The work that the policemen do is such that there is very little time to address problems at home or attend to personal issues.

Most of the cops say that at least with these statistics being revealed the government must ensure that vacancies in the department are filled at the earliest so that existing policemen are not overloaded with work.