India’s First Suicide Prevention Policy

 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently unveiled the National Suicide Prevention Strategy – India’s first suicide prevention policy.

Why was the policy launched?

• National Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS) aims to reduce suicide mortality by 10 per cent by 2030 through timely actions and multi-sectoral collaborations.
• The national strategy has several objectives. These are:

1. Set up effective surveillance mechanisms for suicides within the next 3 years
2. Establish psychiatric outpatient departments that provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all states within 5 years
3. Integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next 8 years

• The strategy also seeks to develop guidelines for responsible media reporting about suicides and restricting access to the means of suicides.
• It will improve community resilience and societal support for suicide prevention.
• While it is in line with the WHO’s South East-Asia Region Strategy for Suicide Prevention, this strategy will remain on par with the Indian culture and social milieu.

What is NSPS?

• The NSPS is divided into 3 parts – immediate, intermediate and long-term strategy.
• Its priority areas are reducing easy access to suicide modes, strengthening healthcare systems to prevent suicide, sensitization through media and strengthening suicide surveillance.
• Under this policy, the government will phase out hazardous pesticides.
• It will also increase post-graduate seats in the field of mental health.
• Short-term training to non-specialist doctors and others will also be provided to increase access to mental health services.

Suicides in India

India, as middle-income country, has a high burden of suicide. More than 1 lakh people lose their lives each year because of it. It is among the top reasons for deaths of people in the age group of 15 to 29 years. The most common reasons for suicides include family problems and illnesses, which account for 34 per cent and 18 per cent of all suicide-related deaths. About 63 per cent of people who died of suicide earned less than Rs.1 lakh per annum. Daily wage earners, self-employed persons and housewives accounted for over half of the suicide cases in the country.

Unhappy rank: Deaths by suicide at its highest in India

 National Crime Records Bureau for 2021 showed an increase of 7.2 per cent over those in 2020 — from 1.53 lakh deaths to 1.64 lakh

The virus was not the only mass killer during the pandemic. Deaths by suicide reported by the National Crime Records Bureau for 2021 showed an increase of 7.2 per cent over those in 2020 — from 1.53 lakh deaths to 1.64 lakh. In 2019, such deaths numbered 1.39 lakh. A 2021 Lancet study pointed out that India had the highest number of suicide deaths in the world. One reason for concern here is that the NCRB uses data from police reports, which leaves open the possibility that the facts are incomplete, because the associated social stigma often drives families to conceal the nature of death. Social stigma and confusion about the legal status of self-harm seem to have added to the authorities’ strange indifference to the countrywide tragedy that has been growing steadily. Creating categories such as ‘farmer suicides’ and ‘student suicides’ is not enough. In 2020 and 2021, however, the number of suicides that has grown faster than the average rate of increase is that of daily wage earners: one in four suicides comes from this group. While the pandemic hurt them severely, the increase must also be placed in the context of the ceaseless rise in suicide deaths among them since 2014.

Unemployment in 2020, and bankruptcy and debt in 2021 pushed more working-age people, especially men, over the edge. This is, again, pandemic driven, but these causes converge with older ones of family problems and illness. A large proportion of the illness behind suicide has to do with mental health, which adds to the stigma. Women’s suicides for illness increased in both 2020 and 2021, while it was, with family problems, the greatest cause of self-harm for senior citizens. Close confines, acute insecurity and even hunger must have contributed to the sense of hopelessness. Perhaps the general misery was reflected in the growth of drug abuse as one of the greatest causes of self-harm for people of working age, men mainly; together with illness, drugs as cause of suicide showed rapid growth. The NCRB data are, as always, more than adequate to unearth the roots of the tragedy — these are various, although often allied. Perhaps the numbers are now staggering enough for the busiest government to pay attention to clear-cut policies of suicide prevention. 

Source: The Telegraph, 02/09/22

Student suicides have spiked. Policies must be geared to decrease stress

According to a 2017 study published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 37.7%, 13.1%, and 2.4% of the students were suffering from moderate, severe, and extremely severe depression in universities.

More than 400 students (under 18 years) committed suicide in Delhi between 2014 and 2018, a petition filed in the Supreme Court has revealed. A public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Gaurav Kumar Bansal, requested the SC to direct all Indian states to plan, design, formulate and implement health programmes to prevent and reduce suicides. For a long time, mental health challenges were considered a taboo subject in India. But, in the last few years, there has been, at least in urban India, growing public awareness around the issue. Parliament has also passed the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, which ensures that every person shall have the right to access mental health care and treatment from mental health services, run or funded by the government.

Despite this, the situation in campuses is worrying. According to a 2017 study published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 37.7%, 13.1%, and 2.4% of the students were suffering from moderate, severe, and extremely severe depression in universities. Experts say that college and university students are susceptible because this is a critical transitory period when they go from adolescence to adulthood. This is also the time when students are also trying to fit in new campuses, ensure good grades, and plan for the future. Unfortunately, only a few top universities help students negotiate these challenges.

Universities usually take the counselling approach to tackle mental health issues. But this is inadequate, since it tends to put the onus on students to tackle the problem. Instead the strategy should be to invest in a preventive system that decreases stress. Addressing the root cause is critical because India doesn’t have adequate funds (only 0.06% of the health budget is devoted to mental health) and trained personnel to tackle the burgeoning number of mental health cases.

Source: Hindustan Times, 20/08/2019

India’s Youth Suicide Binge

Younger people, and married women, are more prone to suicide in India

In most countries suicide mortality increases with age. In India, the opposite happens. The suicide rate among young adults aged 15-29 is more than three times the national average. This makes us a country with one of the highest suicide rates among youth in the world. What explains this oddity? The answer lies in yet another oddity: India has a relatively high suicide rate among young adult women. Globally, suicide is much commoner among men than women. The battle to reduce suicide has also been more successful for women than men. Across nations, suicide rates for men are three to seven times as high as for women. The same pattern prevails in India across most age groups, though here the gender gap is less sharp. The oddity is among young adults for whom the gender gap virtually vanishes, and in certain locations, suicide is higher among women. One study published in the Lancet a few years ago found that suicide rate of girls aged 15-19 around Vellore, Tamil Nadu, was 148 per lakh, almost thrice the rate for similarly aged boys. The gender gap in suicide gets worse after marriage. Here is another oddity. In most Western countries, married women are less likely to commit suicide than formerly married women. India is an outlier: married women are more likely to commit suicide than divorced, widowed and separated women, according to the Million Death study, a research project based on a nationally representative mortality survey on the causes of death occurring in 1.1million homes in 6,671areas chosen randomly across the country. Science does not tell us much about the exact cause of suicide. Broadly, we know that biological, environmental and cultural factors make certain populations more vulnerable than others. High suicide rates for young married women in India could flow from a combination of these factors. It is tempting to interpret this high rate as the result of psychological and physical torture from husbands and in-laws, that is common in India. Curiously, a geographic element weakens the gender explanation of high suicide rates among young married women. South Indian states, well-known for better gender relations and female empowerment than north Indian states, have much higher youth mortality. Neighbouring Sri Lanka, with excellent social indicators and higher women’s empowerment, also has a high youth female suicide rate. This could simply reflect greater sociocultural tolerance of suicide as a way out of mental stress. In India, we have a tendency to link suicides with income or economic distress. Farmers have captured all the recent attention on suicides. Suicide among farmers is considered evidence of exceptionally high economic distress among them. Public discourse is politically motivated, highly charged, generally irreverent of facts, and substantially non-serious. In fact the suicide rate is lower for farmers than nonfarmers.
Most extant research does not associate poverty with suicide mortality. Indeed, suicide mortality in India is higher among the more educated, who are typically better off than the less educated. Crosscountry comparisons also reject a link between poverty and suicide. Among well-off OECD countries, Japan has the highest suicide rate at 20 per lakh population, followed by Switzerland at 14 per lakh. Much-poorer India’s suicide rate is 11 per lakh population. Data across Indian states lead to the same conclusion. Suicide rates are up to 10 times higher in richer southern states than in poorer northern states. Now, economic or other shocks can push the vulnerable over the edge. The collapse of the Soviet Union, for instance, sharply increased the suicide rate there. What matters is a relative worsening of economic conditions, not the absolute level of incomes. While the exact causes of suicide remain obscure, the good news is that, globally, the battle against suicides has been a successful one. Since 1994, suicide rates have fallen by more than a third globally. The sharpest decline has been in Russia, South Korea and Japan – the three countries that also have among the highest rates in the world. As in many dimensions of well-being, China has been a leader in the battle against suicide. Its rate has fallen to 7 per lakh in recent years. Like India, China used to have high suicide rates for young women, but that rate has fallen by 90% since the mid-1990s. A contributing factor is urbanisation that granted women greater freedom of work; opportunities to leave violent husbands and in-laws; and live relatively stress-free lives in cities. Means restriction is one of the most effective strategies. In Britain, simply repackaging of painkillers from bottles to blister packs reduced suicide death from overdose of paracetamol by 44%. Limiting access to guns in Australia and restricting alcohol distribution in Russia lowered suicides. In India, toxic pesticides are often used to end life. Better packaging and restricted access of pesticides could reduce the risk of suicide in rural areas. Globally, a major factor contributing towards reduced suicide is better diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. Anti-depressants, psychiatric help, access to suicide lifelines, and just the availability of somebody to talk to sympathetically can curb suicides. It would have to be a societal effort and not just something left to the government. This requires compassion and caring towards a targeted vulnerable population, and cannot be simply addressed with buckets of money. Farm loan waiver, every politician’s favourite policy choice to tackle suicide, is extremely blunt, leaky and wasteful. Imagine the chance that a state or nation-wide loan waiver will reach the 0.008% of farmers who are at risk of committing suicide?

 The writer is Professor of Social Policy at Columbia University

Source: Times of India, 7/02/2019

Preventing student suicides

The rising number of cases must provoke a discussion on how outcomes of education are perceived in India

The end of 2018 brought with it some deeply unsettling cases of student suicides. The deaths of 49 students in Navodaya Vidyalaya schools in the last five years, and of three students preparing for the IIT entrance examinations in Kota in a span of four days, brings the issue of youth suicides to the fore again. More youths are taking their lives due to the fear of failing in examinations, constant flak from teachers, bullying from peers, family pressure and a loss of a sense of a decent future. These cases force us to recognise that youth suicides are ubiquitous, and the educational ecosystem must take the blame for this.

Current scenario

The Kota case is not an aberration. There have been frequent news reports of suicides taking place in coaching centres that train students for medical and engineering entrance examinations. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, between 2014 and 2016, 26,476 students committed suicide in India. Of them, 7,462 committed suicide due to failure in various examinations.

The rising number of these cases provokes a serious discussion on the way in which outcomes of education are perceived in India. The instrumental value of education in India is its potential in generating socio-economic and cultural capital through a promise of decent job opportunities in the future. But the education system has not been successful in generating enough job options. For instance, the International Labour Organisation’s World Employment and Social Outlook Trends Report of 2018 says that in 2019, the job status of nearly 77% of Indian workers would be vulnerable and that 18.9 million people would be unemployed. With their job future being so bleak, students are put under constant pressure to perform. They have failed to learn to enjoy the process of education. Instead, the constant pressure and stress has generated social antipathy and detachment among them. Sociologist Emile Durkheim had famously hypothesised that suicides are a result of not just psychological or emotional factors but social factors as well. With a loss of community and other social bonds, students in schools, colleges and coaching centres end up taking their lives.

Following the reports of suicides in Navodaya Vidyalayas, the National Human Rights Commission sought information from the Ministry of Human Resource Development on whether trained counsellors were present on campus. In the recently concluded winter session of Parliament, the HRD Minister said that an expert committee has been set up to look into the matter. According to Navodaya Vidyalaya Samitis, merely one or two training sessions are included to sensitise the teachers and principals regarding safety and security of the children and to prevent suicidal tendencies. The framework for implementation of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) recognises the role of guidance and counselling services to students. In 2018, the government approved an integrated school education scheme subsuming the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the RMSA, and Teacher Education from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020. However, without any significant rise in budgetary allocations for education, it is likely that there would be cuts in “non-productive” areas of education such as guidance and counselling.

The way forward

First, stop-gap solutions to setting up expert committees and counsellors in schools have not been able to solve the problem. The deep-rooted causes must be addressed. The government must undertake a comprehensive study on the reasons behind these suicides. Second, the curriculum should be designed in ways that stress the importance of mental exercises and meditation. The Delhi government’s initiative on the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ may be a step in the right direction. Third, with regards to higher education, 12 measures were suggested by the Justice Roopanwal Commission. One of them stressed on making Equal Opportunity Cells with an anti-discrimination officer functional in universities and colleges. Finally, it is high time we seek to reinvent our educational ecosystem in ways that impregnate new meanings, new ideas of living, and renewed possibilities that could transform a life of precarity into a life worth living.

Shahana Munazir is a Delhi-based scholar

Source: The Hindu, 15/01/2019

‘37% of women committing suicide in world are Indians’

 Men Account For 24% Of Cases: Lancet

Every third woman who committed suicide in 2016 was an Indian. Although Indians accounted for 18% of the global population in 2016, a study published in the Lancet Public Health journal on Wednesday showed that India accounted for 37% of the global suicide deaths among women and 24.3% among men. Rakhi Dandona, one of the lead authors of the study, told TOI that married women account for the highest proportion of suicide deaths among women in India. Marriage, she said, is known to be less protective against suicide for women because of arranged and early marriages, young motherhood, low social status, domestic violence, and economic dependence. “Lack of access to mental health facilities for women could also be a factor behind the high incidence of suicide related death among them,” Dandona, a professor at Public Health Foundation of India, added. She said trends in Suicide Death Rate in women suggest the need to further assess the complex relationships between gender and suicidal behaviour in order to facilitate womenspecific suicide prevention strategies. The study, titled ‘Gender differential and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of Diseases Study 1990-2016’, is based on an analysis of suicide death trends across the country. It shows that 63% of all suicide deaths are in the 15-39 age group. “Suicide is the top cause of death in this age group in India. Globally, it is ranked third,” it said. The study said there was an increase of 40% in the number of suicide deaths between 1990 and 2016, with an estimated 2,30,314 deaths in 2016. It found wide variations in the suicide rates across states. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Tripura had high rates for both men and women while Kerala and Chhattisgarh had high suicide death rates for men. The suicide death rate for women in India is 15 per one lakh women, which is double than the global suicide rate for women in 2016, which is 7 per one lakh women.

Source: Times of India, 13/09/2018 

Suicide the leading cause of death in 15-29 age group

Suicide

is the leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 and has seen a sharp increase since 2004-06, according to new data released by the Office of the Census Commissioner on Monday.

The alarming data is in line with a recent statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that said suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds globally and needs attention as a public health problem across countries.

Around 18% of deaths among young people in 2010-13 were attributed to suicide, as compared with 15.8% in 2004-06. The data revealed that the proportion of young people resorting to suicide is even higher in rural areas, where nearly 19% of deaths of people in the age group was due to suicide as compared w ith 16.5% in 2004-06.

In urban areas, while motor vehicle accidents were the biggest killer in the age group at

Suicide 15.3%, suicide was a close second, responsible for 14.7% of the deaths.

The causes of death for the age group have more or less remained the same since 2004-06, with suicide being followed by motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases.

WHO’s South-east Asia region, which includes India, contributed to 39% of global suicides.

As the population in the region is predominantly rural, the occurrence of suicides is generally much higher in the rural parts of South-east Asia, the organization has said.

“The problem of suicides in this age group has been flagged over many years, but there has been a complete failure of the state to recognize suicide as a threat to the well-being of young adults,” said Vikram Patel, professor of international mental health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“It is essential to have a suicide policy based on public health interventions that cover various aspects such as gender discrimination, coping skills, direct counselling intervention,” he said.

The National Crime Records Bureau’s report for 2014, released in July 2015, shows that around 41% of the suicides that occurred were among people aged 14 to 30.

Patel explained that different pressures related to the age group, such as broken relationships, academic performance and work pressures, interact with the developmental stage of the brain at that age, making the age group vulnerable.

“There needs to be a broader discourse about suicide as a public health problem instead of pinpointing the reasons responsible for the action. Energies need to be diverted to saving lives and preventing these deaths,” he added.

Vivek Benegal, professor of psychiatry at the Bengalurubased National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, said that the discourse needs to educate young people that there are solutions to these problems.

“Young people face a lot more socioeconomic pressure as compared to say 15-20 years ago. It is important to train children at school on how to solve or cope with stress, sadness, anger and other such situations. This is unfortunately not happening in schools and colleges,” Benegal said.

Source: Mint, 9-02-2016

Jul 27 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

70% of all suicide victims had annual income of Rs 1L

Deeptiman Tiwary

New Delhi:





'14 Data Showed Poverty Linked To Deaths

While people commit suicide for various reasons, a poor person is more likely to kill himself for the same reason than one who is rich.The data from NCRB for 2014 shows a direct relationship between poverty and suicide. While the exhaustive data segregates suicides according to various causes, the common thread running through a majority of suicides is poverty . According to the data, 70% of all suicide victims had an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. Conversely, those who earned over Rs 10 lakh a year made up for just 0.6% of victims. This simply means that even if the reason for suicide is absolutely personal, such as failure in love or a family dispute, a poor person is more likely to end his life than a rich person. The data shows that as the economic prosperity of people improves, their rate of suicide decreases. It also shows that those who earned between Rs 1-5 lakh made up for 27% of victims, while those who made between Rs 5-10 lakh accounted for 2.8% of suicides.
Curiously , Bihar being one of the poorest states had one of the lowest suicide incidents among the poor (with income of less than Rs 1 lakh). It recorded just 408 suicides as against a prosperous Maharashtra which had the highest share of poor (12,590) people ending their lives. Another prosperous state, Tamil Nadu, was a close second with 11,738 suicides by the poor. Given that in India, one's educational qualification is often related to one's economic status, it is also reflected in suicide trends.
According to NCRB data, 75% of those who committed suicide had not studied beyond Class 10. It can be presumed that this must have affected their employability in better jobs and thus adversely impacted their economic wellbeing. That the government is rightly stressing on skill development is reflected in the fact that those with professional qualifications are least likely to commit suicide.
Professionals (with MBA, engineering or medical education) made up for just 0.3% of all suicide victims.

All is not lost

Don't take that extreme step. Develop a positive attitude; help is always around the corner.

A student posts on Facebook about being alone and feeling hopeless. He proceeds to send SMSs to his friends that carry a tone of farewell. Alarmed, his friends go to visit him in his hostel room and convince him that things are not so bad, and then they leave. Within the next few hours, the boy does as he had threatened — he ends it all.

This is a tragic story, but, unfortunately, more common than we would like to believe. A story, in fact, which busts myth and misunderstanding about the way suicides happen and do not happen. “People who say it, do not do it,” is the most often heard statement about suicide attempts. However, it is untrue, as demonstrated by the story just narrated.

This is also a story that points to a crying need for awareness and education on suicide prevention and setting up a whole ecosystem of enlightened peers, teachers, professional counselors, psychiatrists and other “gatekeepers” who will support the person who is on the brink.

When I narrated this story to Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, Director, Sneha — an organisation that works to help those with suicidal instincts — she reacted with a gentle nod of her head. It is wrong to think that the suicidal instinct will last only for that moment, she said, cracking one more myth that people believe in. “The above case is not unique, there have been several like that. In such a situation, where the suicidal person announces his or her intention, the right action would be for the friends, or confidante, to get professional help to deal with the person. He or she may need medical attention for two to three weeks until he or she recovers,” she says.

There is a well established link between suicide attempts and mental disorders; however, not all suicides are prompted by these issues. There is a need to study the context in which every suicide or an attempt to suicide happens. Risk factors vary. In many countries, those who are minorities or are marginalised experience a higher risk.

Suicide prevention

September 10 is world suicide prevention day. WHO has released a report entitled, “Preventing suicide: a global imperative” which contains not only shocking data on the numbers and percentages of suicides across the world but also definite plans for putting into place a national suicide prevention strategy.

The most shocking information contained in the report is that the rate of suicides, which is defined as the number of suicides per 100,000 population, was highest for the age group 15-29 years in 2012 (35.5 per 100,000). The number was 36.1 for females and 34.9 for males. The figures for the rates when you take all of the world, for all ages, are 11.4 per 100,000 (15.0 for males, 8.0 for females).

This is shocking not only because many of these could have been prevented but also because for every one of these deaths by suicide, there would have been about 20 people who attempted suicide.

The WHO report stresses the importance of a nationwide action to prevent this from happening. What does this include?

Strategies

Only 28 countries around the world have a national suicide prevention strategy. India, significantly, is NOT one of them. This is despite the fact that this is one of the highest causes of violent death in its population.

Surveillance, means restriction, media guidelines, stigma reduction and raising of public awareness and training of healthworkers, educators, police and others are the first things to develop in a national strategy for prevention of suicide.

The validity of the above suggested strategies has been tested in different countries. To give an example, when responsible media reporting, such as not giving details of suicidal acts, not sensationalising the news, educating the public, etc, was practised, the rates of suicide did go down in Austria and Australia.

Legal aspects

Attempting suicide is a crime in India. It was once the case in many countries around the world. However, in the last fifty years, a majority of countries have changed their laws to decriminalise suicide attempts. Of the 192 countries and states mentioned as having been investigated in the WHO report, only 25, including India, have specific laws and punishments for attempting suicide. Ten other countries follow Sharia law and in these countries also, people who attempt suicide may be punished.

This is also an important point. For “no data or case-reports indicate that decriminalization increases suicides. In fact, suicide rates tend to decline in countries after decriminalisation…” according to the report.

Supporting sufferers

“Young people, just like those of any age group, suffer doubly after a suicide attempt. They are burdened with the guilt of what they have tried and also the problem which prompted them to attempt suicide, which will not just disappear,” says Dr. Vasuki Mathivanan who is a counseling psychologist in Chennai. For two to three weeks after the attempt, the person has to be given good company and watched over with warmth, she says. Awareness of how to recognise symptoms, such as isolating oneself, depression, sharp loss of or increase in food intake, depressed statements, and how to handle and approach the affected person and also, most importantly, how to get help needs to be developed.

Parents and peers play a crucial role in helping someone who has attempted suicide and survived, to get back on his or her feet. It is important at this stage not to further humiliate them but to make them aware that there are people who care for them. Most often it is the feeling, or idea, that a problem has no solution that makes one take the step towards suicide. This needs to be dispelled and hope must be given to them.

The most important thing is to make positive attitude a way of life. September 10 is just one day in a year; working at preventing suicide calls for being active everyday.

Keywords: suicide, suicide prevention, professional counselors, psychiatrists

Sep 05 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

One person commits suicide every 40 seconds: UN study

GENEVA AFP





One person commits suicide every 40 seconds, an avoidable tragedy that fails to grab attention because of taboos and stigma, a UN report said on Thursday.The World Health Organisation also warned that media reporting of suicide details raises the risk of copycat behaviour.
“Every suicide is a tragedy. It is estimated that over 800,000 people die by suicide and that there are many suicide attempts for each death,“ said WHO chief Margaret Chan in the landmark report capping a decade of research.
WHO, which called suicide a major public health problem that must be confronted and stemmed, studied 172 countries to produce the report. South East Asia -which in WHO-speak includes countries such as North Korea, India, Indonesia and Nepal -made up over a third of the annual. Suicides in high-income countries, meanwhile, accounted for around a quarter of the global figure.
The most suicide-prone countries were Guyana (44.2 per 100,000), followed by North and South Korea (38.5 and 28.9 respectively). Next came Sri Lanka (28.8), Lithuania (28.2), Suriname (27.8), Mozambique (27.4), Nepal and Tanzania (24.9 each), Burundi (23.1), India (21.1) and South Sudan (19.8).
In 2012, India accounted for the highest estimated number of suicides in the world, said the study.





Sep 05 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India is world's suicide capital with 2.6L casesyr

New Delhi TIMES NEWS NETWORK





India records by far the largest number of suicides in the world, accounting for nearly a third of the global total and more than twice as many as China, which is second on the list.India also has the highest rate of suicides among young people — those aged 15 to 29 years.
These were among the sobering facts revealed in a report released by the WHO, “Preventing Suicide, A Global Imperative”. The report noted that an estimated 8 lakh suicide deaths occurred worldwide in 2012. It is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.
In 2012, India recorded nearly 2.6 lakh suicides, dwarfing China’s 1.2 lakh.
India’s overall rate of suicides (incidents per lakh population) was 12th at 20.9. The worst countries on this parameter were North and South Korea, Guyana, Lithuania and Sri Lanka. Hungary, Japan, the Russian Federation and Belarus also had higher suicide rates than India. The Scandina vian countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark — often perceived as societies with high suicide rates — had much lower rates.
In richer countries, three times as many men die of suicide as women, but in low and middle-income countries, the male-to-female ratio is much lower at 1.5 men to each woman. Globally, suicides account for 50% of all violent deaths in men and 71% in women. n India, the ratio was about I 1.6 with close to 1.6 lakh men committing suicide in 2012 compared to just under 1 lakh women. In four countries in India's immediate neighbourhood -China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan -women outnumbered men among suicides. Only in Iraq and Indonesia was the proportion of women to men among those committing suicide higher than these countries.
India, despite its horrific statistics, has actually seen a decline in the tendency to commit suicide since 2012, with the rate declining by 9.2% over this 12-year period.China, in the same period, saw its suicide rate drop by 59%.
India is a clear exception to the global pattern of the 70+ age group having the highest suicide rates. At 21.1 per lakh population, suicides among this age group are only about as common as among the entire population. Risk factors associated with the health system and society at large include difficulties in accessing health care and in receiving the care needed, easy availability of the means for suicide, inappropriate media reporting that sensationalizes suicide and increases the risk of “copycat“ suicides, and stigma against people who seek help for suicidal behaviours, or for mental health and substance abuse problems.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com