Nuri (35) starts her day at 6 am throughout the week. After cleaning the home, making breakfast, and preparing tiffin for her husband and children, Nuri starts for office at 7:30 am. After returning from the office, she has to do chores like cooking, feeding the kids, serving food to family members, cleaning dishes, etc. She goes to sleep after 1 am. She never gets a single day for rest throughout the week. Inadequate sleep and the regular pressure of maintaining work-life balance are pushing her into depression. Samira (28) commutes to the office every day by public transport. As her office does not provide any transport facility, it is a regular hassle to reach office on time, commuting through the overwhelming traffic jam of Dhaka city. While riding heavily congested public transport, Samira feels worried about physical molestation and harassment. She also feels insecure while returning home from work in the evening. These regular anxieties are hampering her performance at work. Farin (25) works in a private company in Dhaka city. At her workplace, while protesting unwanted flirting and intimidation, she has been threatened by a senior male colleague. Though she got support from her female colleagues, the office management has more or less ignored the issue. As her company lacks an effective HR department, she didn’t get the scope to file a formal complaint. Furthermore, she has faced judgemental comments from senior colleagues on her “choice of clothing”. She has developed stress-related insomnia. Read More: Pregnancy Anxiety? How to reduce the stress of pregnant mothers? When Afrin (40) joined a marketing agency with a female boss, where close to 80% of the workforce are also women, she expected a safe environment. However, her professional growth has induced jealousy among some colleagues. Though she works hard and often goes the extra mile to achieve the sales targets, her male colleagues label her success as a product of “flattery and favoritism”. She finds the environment demotivating. Mahin (32) is a working mother with an 18-month-old son. As her office has no day-care facility for children, she finds no alternative but to leave her son with a relative or domestic worker during her office hours. Sometimes she feels stressed at work when her child is unwell. Though she looks after her son before and after work, her in-laws often talk about her “negligence” in maternal duties – directly and indirectly putting pressure on her to leave her job and stay home. The constant stress and disagreement at home are taking a toll on her mental health. These scenarios are not uncommon for working women in Bangladesh. Women going through anxieties over maintaining a work-life imbalance should not ignore their mental and emotional well-being. Read More: '80% of cyberbullying victims are women' Why do women feel more stressed at work? Common sources of work-related stress for Bangladeshi women include: Sexual harassment: Many institutions and organizations lack strict policies against sexual harassment. Therefore, some people take advantage and tend to harass their female colleagues. Intimidation: Some men consider themselves superior to female colleagues at work. They often tend to intimidate and dominate their female colleagues at the work, even though no involvement is required. Unsafe work environment: Sometimes male colleagues tend to make vulgar insinuations to women colleagues. Though it is not direct harassment, women feel abused and insecure. Prejudice: At work, many professional women go through judgemental attitudes from colleagues and office management for their choice of clothing, ways of living, marital status. Single mothers, and unmarried women are the worst victims of such prejudices. Read More: Protecting Your Child’s Mental Health: 10 Tips for Parents Gender discrimination in pay: From entry-level to high positions, women working in different sectors of Bangladesh often experience discrimination in pay. It discourages many bright women from succeeding in their careers. Professional jealousy: Many women professionals achieve rewards, increments, and promotions at work. However, in some cases, instead of getting encouragement from colleagues they have to go through taunts and negative comments. Such actions are demotivating.   Lack of strong female leadership: Attaining gender equality in the workplace is a challenge. However, there is a clear line between female empowerment and female leadership. In many workplaces, female professionals are leading the organizations, but the rights of all women in said organizations are not ensured. Insecurity in transport: In Dhaka city, availability of public transport is quite inadequate compared to the population. Though the government has marked some seats for women in public buses, those are very scarce compared to the number of women commuters. Sometimes women experience pushing and physical molestation while on crowded public transport. Many working women cannot afford private transport in Bangladesh. Read More: Mental Health: Types of Mental Illness and supporting someone with a mental health problem Work-life balance: In Bangladesh, women mainly have to carry out the domestic responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and other chores at home. Generally, men get to relax after work. On the other hand, women bear the pressure of reaching home on time and doing the chores. Men rarely help in cooking, cleaning, or looking after children. Thus, working women are always racing to maintain the balance between work and home.

Depression, loneliness and stress can sometimes lead someone toward feeling hopelessness. In addition to that one may consider his/her life worthless if these negative emotions become overwhelming. As a result, some people even choose the path of suicide without thinking of anything. However, a professional counseling support can help a mentally disturbed person to overcome the situation. Counseling not only saves a life; it can also provide courage to start a new life. Bangladeshi emotional support helpline ‘Kaan Pete Roi’ has been providing counseling services to the people having mental health issues.  What is Kaan Pete Roi? Kaan Pete Roi (http://shuni.org/) is the first psychiatric helpline in Bangladesh, where anyone can call and get emergency psychiatric services from their trained volunteers. Anyone struggling with any sort of mental issues can call ‘Kaan Pete Roi’ for help. It is a valuable resource for those who need someone to talk to. With this goal in mind, Kaan Pete Roi listens to people with a completely open mind, privacy, and compassion. There are organizations in 40 countries around the world that are making a significant contribution to the prevention of suicide and the development of mental health care. However, Kaan Pete Roi is the first such organization in Bangladesh. Read Protecting Your Child’s Mental Health: 10 Tips for Parents Background A graduate of psychology from Cornell University, Yeshim Iqbal founded Kaan Pete Roi. Yeshim is pursuing her doctorate at New York University. Previously Yeshim had worked for a psychiatric helpline in the United States for almost three years. The helpline was opened on April 28, 2013. Over the years, the organizations have helped more than 19,000 people. How Kaan Pete Roi Works? Currently, 42 countries around the world provide mental health support over the phone. These helplines can provide individuals with information on how to find help, advice on how to cope with a mental health condition, and listening ears for those who need someone to talk to. So how it works is not unknown as the same method has been used around the world. When anyone calls the Kaan Pete Roi helpline, their trained volunteers will pick up the phone and encourage the caller to speak up. So, volunteers at Kaan Pete Roi do this work willingly. But none of them are ordinary volunteers. They are selected after a lot of checking and selection. The volunteers have to go through long training. Those who can successfully go through the whole process can sit for the helpline call. Read World Mental Health Day: What effect does depression have on the performance of athletes? The person who calls for help does not have to identify himself; the problem he is talking about is kept completely secret. Volunteers will not comment on the problem. They will just listen to the person passionately. A person listens to the caller’s sorrow with deep compassion, from where the sufferer finds peace. Since the volunteers will never tell anyone about the identity of the help seeker or the problem, no one outside will know about it. Caller confidentiality According to the policy, the organization will never ask for any identity details of the caller. Hence, the caller remains anonymous. However, if any caller reveals his/her identity, the volunteers are not allowed to note it down. When Can you Call Kaan Pete Roi? Almost all the countries that provide metal support through phone calls operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week. However, ‘Kaan Pete Roi’ could not go to such a stage. It runs at a fixed time five days a week. Anyone can email or call the helpline Friday through Wednesday from 3pm to 9pm, and Thursday from 3pm to 3am. Read Mental Health: Types of Mental Illness and supporting someone with a mental health problem Gradually they are trying to increase their time. At the moment the number of their volunteers is more than fifty. The number of volunteers needs to be increased a lot to keep it running 24 hours a day. They are slowly doing that. If they had the financial means, they could have done it faster. Volunteers may not be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; But when they are supposed to stay, they all stay. How to Work as a Volunteer? All the volunteers need to go through a strict training session before they get selected. Usually, training is given for 3 days, including weekends. Every helpline volunteer will be taught through extensive practice how to listen, how to estimate the level of danger, and how to talk to people prone to suicide and trauma. One volunteer will then spend three hours a week shifting time and talking to telephone callers to guide the helpline’s supervisors and colleagues. All the volunteers are required to work at Kaan Pete Roi’s office at Lalmatia, Dhaka. If that is not possible for you, at least you can ask people close to you to call them so that they can try to help more people. Read Teen Depression: How to help your depressed teenager? Final Words We all know how to give medical care to a person who is physically ill. However, most of us don’t know that a mentally disturbed person also needs care. It can be done by listening carefully to someone’s words. That is what Kaan Pete Roi is exactly doing. The words that people can say to anyone are hurting inside. The Kaan Pete Roi helpline is giving them a chance to speak up, which works as great emotional support.