As per the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on August 27, at least 1,64,033 people in India died by suicide in 2021 — an increase by 7.2 per cent in comparison to the number of suicides in 2020 when 153,052 such deaths were registered with the country’s apex body on criminal records.
At 120 deaths per million population, 2021 also witnessed the highest rate of deaths from suicide since 1967 — ever since the NCRB has begun recording data.
Statewise, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of these suicides (22,207), followed by Tamil Nadu (18,925), Madhya Pradesh (14,965), West Bengal (13,500) and Karnataka (13,056). These states account for half of the total suicides reported in the country in 2021.
Delhi, which is the most-populous Union Territory [UT], has reported the highest number of suicides (2,840) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (504).
State/UT wise total number of suicides during 2021. Source: NCRB 2021 report
The NCRB data also shows that 64.2 per cent of suicide victims in 2021 had an annual income of less than Rs 1,00,000. ‘Family Problems’ was the found to be the major cause of suicides and accounted for 33.2 per cent of total suicides in 2021.
Meanwhile, a total of 10,881 persons involved in the farming sector — comprising 5,318 farmers/cultivators and 5,563 agricultural labourers — died by suicides in 2021. This accounted for 6.6 per cent of total suicides in the country.
Half of female deaths: Housewives
Of the total 45,026 female victims, housewives accounted for 51.5 per cent (23,179) of deaths by suicide. Most of these suicides by housewives were reported from Tamil Nadu (3,221) was followed by Madhya Pradesh (3,055) and Maharashtra (2,861).
Apart from housewives, the maximum number of deaths by suicide among females was reported amongst students (5,693) and daily wage earners (4,246). Also, a total of 28 persons from the transgender community died by suicide in 2021.
Male suicides
A total of 1,18,979 male suicides was reported in 2021 of which, maximum suicides were by daily wage earners (37,751) followed by those self-employed (18,803) and unemployed (11,724).
The number of male victims were more than females in all means of suicide except those by ‘Fire/Self immolation’, where the share of female victims was higher: 2,435 out of 4,195.
Means adopted to end lives
The means adopted for suicides varied from the ‘easily available and effective’ means such as consumption of poison, jumping to more ‘painful’ means such as self-inflicted injuries and hanging, noted the NCRB report.
More than half (57 per cent) of such deaths were attributed to hanging and consumption of poison (25.1 per cent).
