24.6 per cent of total suicides in 2020 by daily wage workers, NCRB data shows

The data shows that out of the total 1,53,053 suicides committed in the country during 2020, the maximum 37,666 or 24.6 per cent were committed by daily wage earners.

The share of daily wage earners has sharply gone up in recent years. In 2014, their share in the total suicide victims stood at 12 per cent, which increased to 17.8 per cent in 2015, 19.2 percent in 2016, 22.1 percent in 2017, 22.4 per cent in 2018 and 23.4 percent in 2019.

The NCRB report­–Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2020– shows that Tamil Nadu saw the most number of suicides by daily wage earners (6,495), followed by Madhya Pradesh (4,945), Maharashtra (4,176), Telangana (3,831) and Gujarat(2,754).

The NRCB started categorising daily wagers in its ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides’ data only in 2014.

The NCRB report divides suicides into nine categories — apart from daily wagers, housewives and persons engaged in the farming sector, the deaths are listed under professionals/salaried persons, students, self-employed persons, retired persons, and other persons.

Among the all groups, the daily wage earners constituted the largest group profession-wise among the total suicide victims during 2020. They were followed by ‘House wife’ (14.6%), self-employed persons (11.3%), unemployed persons (10.2%) , salaried persons (9.7%), students (8%), farmers/cultivators (7%) and retired persons (1%). 13.4-per-cent suicide victims were categorized as ‘other persons’.

The proportion of the unemployed in suicides went up marginally to 10.2 percent from 10.1 percent in 2019, continuing in double digits for the second consecutive year.

“This data depicts only the profession of persons who have committed suicide and has no linkage whatsoever regarding cause of suicide,” notes the report.