The annual Accidental Deaths and Suicides released by the National Crime Records Bureau showed that India recorded over 1,53,052 deaths by suicide, the highest since 1967 (NCRB have records available from 1967). In the same period of January to December 2020, the number of accidental deaths decreased.
Compared to 2019, 2020 saw a 10 per cent increase in suicide deaths. Many of these, the report states, can be attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a marginal increase in the number of students and small-scale entrepreneurs who died by suicide in the year.
Maharashtra reported the highest number of deaths by suicide followed by Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka. These five states accounted for almost 50 per cent of the recorded deaths in the country. For the last three years, Maharashtra has been reporting the highest number of suicides in the country. In the UTs, Delhi has reported the highest number followed by Puducherry.
Family problems (33.6 per cent) and illness (18 per cent) were the major cause of deaths. The age group of 18 - below 30 years and those between 30 years -45 years of age were the most vulnerable groups resorting to suicides. Around 66 per cent of the ones who died by suicide were married.
Daily wage earners constituted the highest proportion of professionals (24.6 per cent) who died by suicide. A notable high number of self employed professionals (17,332) including small-scale entrepreneurs such as vendors and tradesman also were reported to have died by suicide.
As shown in the table below, housewives and students form around 22 per cent of the population that died by suicide.
While the situation is alarming, and farmer suicides are a major chunk of suicides, several states and UTs such as West Bengal, Nagaland, Tripura, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Delhi, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, and Puducherry reported zero deaths by suicides of farmers/cultivators or agricultural labourers.
Over 23,855 of the deaths were reported in cities across the country. Delhi city with over 3,000 deaths has the highest number among metropolitan cities. Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai are ranked second, third, and fourth respectively.
Close to 284 people died across the country in 121 mass suicide reports. Tamil Nadu with 22 such cases has the highest number of mass suicide cases.
Accidental Deaths, Traffic And Rail Deaths Decrease
While suicides increased, accidental deaths, traffic and railway accidents decreased between January and December 2020.
There were 3,74,397 accidental deaths reported in the country. Close to 7,504 of these deaths were due to forces of nature such as lightning, floods, or exposure to cold.
The other deaths were due to poisoning, drowning, accidental fires, and primarily traffic accidents.
Traffic accidents include road accidents, railway crossing accidents, railway accidents. These accidents injured over 3.36 lakh people and 1.46 lakh died.
In road accidents over 1.3 lakh people lost their lives. Railway crossing accidents led to the death of 1,185 people and railway accidents that included falling off trains led to the death of 11,968 people.
To seek help for anybody exhibiting suicidal tendencies, please reach out to the state specific helplines shared in this link by Aasra.