Suicides in India, how troubled are we? [visualized]

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death.

About 800,000 people commit suicide worldwide every year, of these 17% are residents of India. The male to female suicide ratio has been about 2:1 in India. On an average a total number of suicides in India per day is 300!

As per the reports of Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2014 and National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of suicides in India as per 2014 statistics is 1,09,456.

How troubled are we?

Let’s take a deeper look into this:

Puducherry tops this list followed by Andaman and Nicobar Island, sikkim and telangana with more than 45 suicides per 100000 people in each of these states.

Reason?

There can be a lot of explanations for the same, right from Mental Illness to Unemployment to Social isolation to lack of education to what not, but the real question is that out of 29 states and 7 Union Territories why is it that 5 states/UTs are contributing to more than 75% of the suicides in this country.

To answer this why lets look into the cause or motivators of suicide in India:

Here, we can clearly see that one of the key motivators or cause for the same is “Other Family problems”, these can be anything ranging from inter caste marriage to small family disputes, but in a country based on the values of togetherness and oneness is this the right example we are setting?

Similarly for “Marriage Related Issues” and “Dowry Related Issues”, are we making people prosper in a family or pushing them of the edge?

Let’s deep dive a little bit more into relationship between Male and Female suicides by their Educational Qualification in India:

More educated a person is more likely he/she is to commit a suicide, are we educating ourselves only for them to jump of that ledge?

Is our environment so unfavorable that even after being so educated they are forced to take their own lives?

Reason can be any of the one stated in the above graph but this tells us that it is us and only us who are at fault for this, and we can only make it better.

So far, we’ve looked at this at a state level and educational level, lets look into how suicide among youth in our country by profession in the country:

Blue:Red is the ratio, do not confuse it with the numbers

Which just proves the point said in the starting that Male:Female suicide ratio is around 2:1.

Recommendations:

1. Reducing social isolation: Making our lives more interactive, looking out for each other, spreading happiness instead of stress in this country, these can be as small as community programs, or nationwide campaigns to bring people together.
2. Treating mental illness: Mental illness is still treated as a taboo in India, addressing these problems can be the first step to reducing suicides in our country steps can be launching a nationwide suicide prevention helpline like here!
3. Banning pesticides, poisons, etc : This may be a bit far fetched but right now a person can easily get hold of acid, poison, etc than painkillers, we need to change this, steps can be releasing licenses for farmers to get hold of pesticides, etc.

What do you think about it?
Let’s talk in the comment section or reach me at vaibhavs10@gmail.com