Psycho-social care among the victims of ethnic violence in Assam

Pages: 1206-1209
Rita Rani Talukdar and Nesmita Das (Department of Psychology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam)

Throughout ages, society and its members have withstood countless tragedies and acts of violence, natural disasters, plagues and acts of war, among others. Among them the scourge of ethnic conflict has become one of the most destructive threats to the human condition. The current study aims to explore the psycho-social burden experienced by the victims (N = 60) of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) area of Assam in Kokrajhar in the year 2013 and examine the need for psycho-social care for the survivors of ethnic conflict in order to promote positive mental health and personal well- being. Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS) and a semi-structured interview schedule was used in order to explore the experiences of the victims of this disastrous man-made disaster. Findings of this study revealed that the victims of ethnic violence experienced various psycho-social burden and there is an urgent need for providing psycho-social care to these victims in order to foster positive mental health and resilience among the individuals and the society.