Even as the nation was facing a pandemic, the year saw a 10% rise in suicides in India. Daily wage earners, the self-employed and housewives had the highest numbers among those who took their own lives and Delhi saw a massive 24% jump in suicides, top among 53 megacities. Family problems and illness become the major factors forcing people to take the extreme step.
The latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which works under the ministry of home affairs, shows that a total of 1,53,052 suicides were reported in the country during 2020, an increase of 10% in comparison to 2019. Also, the suicide rate went up by 8.7% during 2020 over 2019.
The report says that daily wage earners, followed by self-employed persons in male suicides, and housewives in female suicides contributed the highest numbers among those who ended their lives in the year 2020.
“Out of total 1,085,32 male suicides, maximum suicides were committed by daily wage earners (33,164) followed by self-employed persons (15,990) and unemployed persons (12,893),” the report says. “A total of 44,498 females committed suicides during 2020 in the country. Of females who committed suicides, the highest number (22,372) was of housewives followed by students (5,559) and daily wage earners (4,493).”
A total of 22 transgender persons too took their own lives, the report shows. Of these, 5 were ‘unemployed persons’, 9 were ‘daily wage earners’, 2 each were ‘self-employed persons’ and ‘housewives’, while 4 fall under the ‘other’ category, it says.
How big cities fared
Out of the megacities, the national capital saw the highest suicides, with over a 24% rise in 2020 compared to 2019, followed by Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
Among the megacities, the four metropolitan cities — Delhi (3,025), Chennai (2,430), Bengaluru (2,196) and Mumbai (1,282) — reported a higher number of suicides. These four cities together have seen almost 37.4% of the total cases reported from 53 megacities. Chennai showed a slight decline during 2020 over 2019. Delhi recorded an increase of 24.8% (from 2,423 suicides to 3,025), Bengaluru 5.5% (from 2,081 suicides to 2,196) and Mumbai observed a rise of 4.3% (from 1,229 suicides to 1,282).
Farmer suicides
The report says that a total of 10,677 persons involved in the farming sector (consisting of 5,579 farmers/cultivators and 5,098 agricultural labourers) ended their lives in 2020, accounting for 7.0% of total suicide deaths (1,53,052) in the country. Out of 5,579 farmer/cultivator suicides, a total of 5,335 were male and 244 were female. States and union territories, namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Delhi, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.
Mass or family suicides
A total of 121 cases of mass/family suicides were registered during the year 2020. In these, a total of 272 persons, comprising 148 married persons and 124 unmarried persons, lost their lives. The maximum cases of mass/family suicides were reported in Tamil Nadu (22 cases) followed by Andhra Pradesh (19 cases), Madhya Pradesh (18 cases), Rajasthan (15 cases) and Assam (10 cases) during 2020 with a total of 45 persons in Tamil Nadu, 46 persons in Andhra Pradesh, 39 persons in Madhya Pradesh, 36 persons in Rajasthan and 10 persons in Assam losing lives.
Causes of suicides
During the Covid pandemic, ‘family problems’ and ‘illness’ were the major causes of suicides, accounting for 33.6% and 18.0% of total cases during 2020. ‘Drug abuse/addiction’ (6.0%), ‘marriage-related issues’ (5.0%), ‘love affairs’ (4.4%), ‘bankruptcy or indebtedness’ (3.4%) were other big factors in suicides.
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