Tuesday, 29 Apr, 2025
By: Yash Gupte
The number of suicides have been constantly rising in India. Image Source: IANS
Analysis of the National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) report on Accidental deaths and suicides in India 2021 shows that, Compared to the suicide rate for all of India, the suicide rate in cities (16.1%) was higher (12.0%) in the previous year
Disclaimer: Some readers may find this report disturbing. Readers discretion is advised.
Every year, the World Mental Health Day is observed on 10th October to mark the importance of mental health and raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health. The Mental Health Day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide. Considering the Mental Health Day and the idea behind it, India Tracker takes a look at one of the most delicate issues related to the mental health- ‘Suicide’. It has been observed by the psychological experts and professionals around the world marks that a person initiates a suicide after suffering from serious mental health issues for a long time. Suicide is the ultimate choice of one when he /she has the reached the limit beyond which the pain is unbearable which is caused due to mental issues.
It has been generally observed by the mental health experts in India that there is very less awareness about suicide and its prevention in the country. The mental health experts say that a historical trend has been observed in the country which shows that people prefer giving more attention to the physical health issues rather than the mental health issues. Experts mark that this is due to lack of awareness about the mental health and issues related to it.
Analysis of the National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) report on Accidental deaths and suicides in India 2021 shows that, Compared to the suicide rate for all of India, the suicide rate in cities (16.1%) was higher (12.0%) in the previous year. Family Issues (other than those relating to marriage) (33.2%), Marital Issues (4.8%), and Illness (18.6%) have contributed to 56.6% of all suicides in the nation in 2021. The ratio of male to female suicide victims was 72.5 to 27.5 overall. While 63.7% of the female victims were married, nearly 68.1% of the male victims were. 11.0% of suicide victims were illiterate, 15.8% had only received their elementary education, 19.1% had only received their middle education, and 24.0% had only received their matriculation education. Only 4.6% of all suicide victims had a graduate degree or higher.
The analysis of the report shows that in a country like India where the institution of Marriage is considered as one of the most important part of one’s life and the ultimate aim is to establish a family out of a marriage, marital issues account of 4.8% of the total suicides in India and 33.2% of the deaths by suicide were reported due to the family issues. The accompanying charts shows the number of suicides in India in last five years.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The number of suicides have been constantly rising in India. In the year 2017, the number of total suicides including male, female and transgender (16) was 1,29,887. This number increased to 1,39,123 in the year 2019. The year 2020 also infamously called as the ‘covid year’ or the ‘pandemic year’ witnessed a massive jump in the number of suicides as 1,08,532 males died by suicide and 44,498 deaths due to suicide were reported among females in India. Mental health experts have attributed the reason behind the sharp increase in the number of suicides to the mental health issues caused by the covid-19 pandemic as many people lost their jobs and faced tough economic conditions and as a result had to gone through serious mental conditions like trauma and depression. One trend which needs to be observed here is that though there was a sharp increase in the suicides among males in India, no such trend was witnessed among the females. However, there was a gradual increase but not a sharp one.
When looking at the means for committing suicide in India, Suicide by ‘Hanging’ (57.0%), Consuming ‘Poison’ (25.1%), ‘Drowning’ (5.1%) and ‘Self-immolation’ (2.6%) were the prominent ones. The majority of suicides (22,207) were reported in Maharashtra, with 18,925 in Tamil Nadu, 14,965 in Madhya Pradesh, 13,500 in West Bengal, and 13,056 in Karnataka following. These suicides accounted for 13.5%, 11.5%, 9.1%, 8.2%, and 8.0% of all suicides, respectively. Together, these 5 States were responsible for 50.4% of all suicides reported nationwide. The remaining 23 States and 8 UTs reported the remaining 49.6% of suicides. ‘Love Affairs’ (4.6%), ‘Bankruptcy or Indebtedness’ (3.9%), ‘Unemployment’ (2.2%),‘Failure in Examination’ (1.0%), ‘Professional/Career Problem’ (1.6%) and ‘Poverty’ (1.1%) were other causes of suicides in the country.
The rise in the suicide rate and the number of suicides in India shows that there needs to be more awareness about the mental health issues and the risks involved.
