New Delhi: Daily wage earners were the most vulnerable group to commit suicide in 2022, revealed the 2022 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released Sunday.
Of the total 1,70,924 suicide cases reported that year, 45,185 were daily wage earners, of which 41,433 were men and 3,752 women. There were 1,64,005 total cases of suicides reported in 2021.
The number of daily wage earners who ended their lives increased by nearly 7 percent — from 41,997 in 2021 to 45,185 in 2022.
The NCRB releases statistics annually of crimes reported in all the states and Union territories based on data reported by State Crime Records Bureaus (SCRBs). Apart from data collection from SCRBs, the NCRB collects data of mega-cities, which have populations of more than 10 lakh, separately.
Other groups that had a high proportion of suicide cases in 2022 were self-employed individuals at 11.4 percent (19,484 cases), students at 7.6 percent (13,044), and unemployed individuals at 9.2 percent (15,783).
The NCRB data also revealed that males were the dominant victims of suicide in 2022, with 1,22,724 reported cases. Among women, there were 48,172 cases.
The number of suicides has been on a continuous rise since 2017 and the rate of suicides — number of people who committed suicide per 1,00,000 people in a given year — has gone up from 9.9 in 2017 to 12.4 in 2022, according to the latest report.
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Top 5 contributors remains the same
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal have continued to report the maximum number of suicides over the past three years starting from 2020.
In 2022, Maharashtra accounted for the highest, 13.3 percent, of total suicides with 22,746 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 11.6 percent (19,834 deaths).
In 2021, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu reported 22,207 and 18,925 suicide cases, respectively.
Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal contributed 9 percent (15,386 cases), 8 percent (13,606), and 7.4 percent (12,669), respectively, to the total number of suicide cases reported in the country in 2022.
In 2021, Madhya Pradesh reported 14,965 suicide cases followed by West Bengal and Karnataka with 13,500 and 13,056 cases, respectively.
Low-income, agricultural workers hit
In terms of job profiles of the victims, the report revealed a stark contrast in the number of suicides among employees of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and private sector enterprises. Only 2,166 (1.3 percent) of the suicide victims were “government servants”, while 11,485 (6.7 percent) were employed in private sector enterprises.
Additionally, the statistics on suicides in 2022 suggested that nearly 95 percent of suicides in that year were committed by people earning less than Rs 5 lakh per annum.
Out of the 1,70,304 people who took their lives, 1,09,875 (64.3 percent) earned less than Rs 1 lakh per annum, while 52,429 (30.7 percent) earned between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh per annum.
Among the people working in the agriculture sector, a total of 11,290 people committed suicide in 2022, accounting for a massive 6.6 percent of total suicides committed that year. Of them, 5,207 were farmers, while the remaining 6,083 were agricultural labourers.
The majority of the farm sector workers who ended their lives were males, with 4,999 farmers and 5,472 farm labourers, compared to 208 female farmers and 611 farm labourers.
The NCRB report also showed that the level of education was inversely related to the suicide rate. Only 8,854 (5.2 percent) of the total suicide victims were graduates or above, while 40,894 (24 percent) were educated up to matriculation/secondary level, and 30,810 (18.1 percent) were educated up to middle level.
Suicide, a problem of big cities?
The NCRB report suggested that the rate of suicides in cities was significantly higher than the national average. The national suicide rate in 2022 was 12.4 percent, while that in cities stood at 16.4 percent.
Four metropolitan cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai — accounted for almost 33.3 percent of the total suicides reported from 53 mega cities.
At 42.6 percent, Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh had the highest suicide rate, followed by Kollam city in Kerala at 42.5 percent. Delhi reported a 22 percent increase in the number of suicides, with 3,367 suicides in 2022 compared with 2,760 in 2021.
On the other hand, Chennai city reported a 41.4 percent decrease in the number of suicides, with 1,581 suicides in 2022 compared with 2,699 in 2021.
Causes of suicide
The NCRB report identified the age group between 18 and 45 years as the most “vulnerable group” for suicides, with “family problems” and “illness” being the main triggering factors in 2022. These two factors were responsible for nearly 50 percent of the suicide cases across the country.
The report also stated that “marriage-related issues” accounted for 4.8 percent of the suicide cases, with women being more affected than men, especially in “dowry-related” and “impotency or infertility” issues.
Among children below 18 years of age, “family problems” were the cause of 2,556 suicides, while “love affairs” led to 1,578 suicides, according to the NCRB data. “Illness” was the reason for 1,292 suicides among minors.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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