NCRB Report on Suicides

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently published its report titled “Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India, 2020”. In the year 2020, suicides in India have increased by 10 percent as compared to 2019 data and reached to 1,53,052.

Key findings

• Report notes that, suicides among student have increased by 21.20 per cent.
• In absolute numbers, daily wage earners accounted for largest share of total suicides. It stood at 37,666 in 2020.
• Number of suicides in 2020 was highest since 1982. It increased by 11.15 per cent as compared to 1981 data, accounting for 44,732 suicides.
• The suicide rate has also increased from 10.4 percent in 2019 to 11.3 percent in the year 2020. Suicide rate is defined as number of suicides per lakh population.
• Share of suicides among daily wage earners has doubled between 2014 and 2020.

Suicides among students

• Suicides among students have increased to its highest level since 1995.
• In the year 2019, 10,335 cases were report. It increased to 14,825 in 2020.
• In percentage terms, share of suicides among students went up from 7.4 per cent to 8.2 per cent in the same period.

Nine Categories of suicides

NCRB report has divided suicides into nine categories namely; daily wagers, housewives, people working in the farm sector, students, professionals/salaried persons, retired persons, self-employed persons, and others. NCRB started categorizing daily wagers in the ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides’ report in 2014.

Share of daily wage earners

Share of suicides among daily wage earners has doubled between 2014 and 2020. In the year 2014, their share was 12 per cent which increased to 23.4 percent in 2019. Tamil Nadu reported the greatest number of suicides among daily wage earners. It is followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2021