Youngsters top India's suicide list

According to the 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides 2009' released recently, 68.7 per cent of a total of 1,27,151 people who committed suicide across the country in 2009 were in the age group of 15-44 years.

More than 55 per cent of the suicide victims in Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi were in the age group of 15-29 years -- 56.42 per cent (62 out of 110) of victims in Arunachal Pradesh and 55.3 per cent (817 out of 1,477) in Delhi were in this age group.

"34.5 per cent of the suicide victims were in the age group of 15-29 years and 34.2 per cent were in the middle aged group of 30-44 years," the report said.

"223 males commit suicides per day in the country while the number for women is 125 out of which 69 are house wives. 73 people commit suicide on a single day due to illness while 10 are driven to suicide due to love affairs," it said.

The country witnessed a 1.7 per cent increase in suicide cases in 2009 compared to the previous when it recorded 1,27,151 cases as against 1,22,902, the report said.

West Bengal topped the list with 14,648 cases followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195).

These five states together accounted for 55.1 per cent of the total suicides.

The southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala (8,755) together accounted for 39.2 per cent of the total suicide cases reported in this year.
Delhi recorded 1,477 suicides in 2009.

Uttar Pradesh has reported a comparatively lower number of suicidal deaths, accounting for only 3.3 per cent of the total cases. The state accounts for 16.7 per cent of the total population.

"The number of suicides during the decade (1999-2009) has recorded an increase of 15 per cent from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009. The increase in incidence of suicides was reported each year during the decade except 2000 and 2001," the report said.

On the reasons for people taking extreme steps, family problems and illness topped the list with 23.7 and 21 per cent cases respectively. Love affairs led to 2.9 per cent and dowry dispute, drug abuse and poverty were 2.3 per cent each.

"It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives," the report said.

The number of suicides due to employment and professional problems have shown an increase of 18.8 and 15.1 per cent in 2009.

According to the figures, professional reasons forced 1,354 people to commit suicide in 2009 as against 1,176 in 2008. The same due to unemployment were 2,472 and 2,080.

The report said the overall sex ratio of suicide victims for 2009 was 64:36.

However, the proportion of boys to girls suicide victims (upto 14 years of age) was 51:49. Nearly 45.8 per cent of the suicide victims were married males, while 24.6 per cent were married females.

It also noted that the five states -– Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh -– accounted for 54.7 per cent of suicide victims in the age group 60
years and above.

"54.5 per cent of the child suicide victims belonged to four states -– Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- out of 2,951 suicide victims," the report said.

On the modes used to commit suicide, consuming poison and hanging appeared to be the most favoured one with 33.6 and 31.5 per cent of victims choosing these modes respectively.

9.2 per cent chose self-immolation and 6.1 per cent drowned themselves.
"The four cities -- Bengaluru (2,167), Chennai (1,412), Delhi (1,215) and Mumbai (1,051) --  together have reported almost 43.3 per cent of the total suicides reported from 35 mega cities," it added.