Karnataka was among the five States that together accounted for 49.5% of the total suicides reported in the country last year, while Bengaluru was among the four metropolitan cities that together reported almost 36.6% of the total suicides from 53 mega cities in India.
This is according to the National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India-2019’ report, which was released on Tuesday.
The report states that the five States that contributed in a big way to the high suicide rate in the country were Maharashtra (13.6%), Tamil Nadu (9.7%), West Bengal (9.1%), Madhya Pradesh (9%), and Karnataka (8.1%). Each of these States has continuously accounted for about 8% or more of the total suicides reported in the country from 2017 to 2019.
However, Karnataka’s percentage share of suicides has seen a marginal decline since 2017. While the State’s share in 2017 was 9%, it came down to 8.6% in 2018, and dropped further to 8.1% in 2019.
A total of 22,390 suicides were reported in the 53 mega cities in 2019. Chennai (2,461), Delhi (2,423), Bengaluru (2,081), and Mumbai (1,229) reported a high number of suicides, together accounting for almost 36.6%. Bengaluru showed a slight decline from 2018 to 2019.
The overall male-female ratio of suicide victims was 70.2 to 29.8; it stood at 68.5 to 31.5 in 2018. The proportion of female victims was greater under ‘marriage-related issues’ (specifically in ‘dowry-related issues’) and ‘impotency/infertility’.
‘Family problems’ and ‘illness’ were the major causes of suicide, accounting for 32.4% and 17.1% of the total numbers, respectively, in 2019. Persons in the age groups of 18 to 30 and 30-45 were the most vulnerable groups, accounting for 35.1% and 31.8% of the suicides, respectively.
Prevention strategy
Analysing the data, G. Gururaj, Dean of Neurosciences and senior professor in the Department of Epidemiology at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), said the trend of suicides in the 18-45 year age group was worrisome. “This age group is most important and productive. We do not know the cause of suicide among the younger age groups and we still don’t have a national suicide prevention strategy in place,” he said.
Dr. Gururaj said that over the years, there has been a growing consensus among experts on the need for such a policy. “Without a strategy, we cannot go forward. We have been informed that the Centre is considering a draft document,” he said, adding that any strategy should be multi-disciplinary, data-driven, include different interventions, and be broad-based and outline the implementation strategies.
He also noted that the number of deaths in the report had remained the same, by and large, over the past three years. He pointed out that the actual numbers may be much higher, given there is a lot of under-reporting and misclassification.
He also said more importance should be given to suicide attempts and those who live with suicidal ideation. “We need to understand the causes for suicide and the risk factors. Unfortunately, this data is not available at the national level. We already know some risk factors, such as history of alcoholism, domestic violence, history of attempt to commit suicide. Precise data and understanding will help,” he said.
Dr. Gururaj said suicide prevention helplines were a useful method of intervention as they offer timely help. “The helplines allow the person to ventilate to an anonymous person who can provide non-judgemental advice on what should be considered,” he said. He, however, added that there was no systematic evaluation of how these helplines would help in the long term.