Suicides in India — 2021

Premature death is a tragedy. It doesn’t matter where it happens, in what way, and under what circumstances. It is traumatic experience, which is devastating for the individual and the family emotionally, socially, and financially. National Crime Records Bureau, Government of India publishes the statistics of suicide in the country so that the stakeholders can take relevant action to tackle this issue.Taking into account the population and the total number of suicide cases, the top five states with the highest incidence of suicide — number of suicides per one lakh of population — are Sikkim, Kerala, Telangana, Chattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu. In general, South India had more number of suicides as compared to the rest of the country. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had just over a quarter of total number of suicides in the country. Except for Haryana, the number of suicides across the country were higher in 2021 as compared to 2020. The states that had the highest rate of increase were Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.The data from 2011 to 2017 shows a gradual decrease in the number of suicides. However, it has been increasing continuously since 2017. The largest ever suicide rate since 2011 was seen in 2021 at 12, which refers to number of suicides per one lakh of population. The highest rate of increase was in 2020 as compared to 2019, a increment of almost 9%. The second highest change was in 2021 at 6.19%. One of the reasons could be COVID-induced distress during this time period.

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