New Delhi:
Fifteen suicides take place every hour in India and a majority (69.2 per cent) of the suicide victims are married while 30.8 per cent un-married, according to latest government statistics. One suicide out of every 5 is committed by a housewife, said the statistics released today in the form of a report.
"It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicide whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives," the report, released by Home Minister P Chidambaram, said.
Over 41 percent of suicide victims were self-employed while only 7.5 per were un-employed. More than one lakh persons (1,34,599) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2010 and nearly 70.5 per cent of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0 per cent were married females, according to the report of the National Crime Record Bureau for 2010.
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh accounted for 65.8 per cent of suicide victims in the age group 60 years and above. Suicides because of 'family problems' (23.7 per cent) and 'illness' (21.0 per cent) combined accounted for 44.7 per cent of total suicides, said the report. The percentage of suicides due to 'property dispute' and 'death of dear person' showed a relatively higher increase of 48.0 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively. The overall male:female ratio of suicide victims for the year 2009 was 65:35. However, the proportion of boys:girls suicide victims (up to 14 years of age) was 52:48.
Among 25 cities, Jabalpur has reported the highest rate of 41.5 and Kolkata reported the lowest rate at 2.1. The pattern of suicides reported from 35 cities showed that 'hanging' (44.5 per cent), 'poisoning' (20.6 per cent) and 'fire/self-immolation' (12.6 per cent) were the means used the suicide victims in the cities.
There is a significant increase in the number of suicides (136.5 per cent) in Patna (from 63 in 2009 to 149 in 2010) while Dhanbad showed a sharp decline of 60.5 per cent (from 152 suicides in 2009 to 60 suicides in 2010). The suicide rate in cities (12.7) was higher as compared to All-India suicide rate (11.4).
Tamil Nadu has reported significant increase in suicides (16,561) in 2010 over 2009 (14,424) (an increase of 14.8 per cent) followed by Maharashtra (from 14,300 in 2009 to 15,916 in 2010), the report said.
The highest number of mass/family suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20), out of 109 cases. 33.1 per cent of the suicide victims consumed poison, 31.4 per cent died by hanging, 8.8 per cent by fire/self-immolation and 6.2 per cent by drowning. The trend of suicide by hanging has been mixed during last three years (32.2 per cent in 2008, 31.5 per cent in 2009 and 31.4 per cent in 2010) while suicide by poisoning has shown decreasing trend in 2007 and 2008 (34.8 per cent in 2008, 33.6 per cent in 2009 and 33.1 per cent in 2010). Bengaluru (1,778), Chennai (1,325), Delhi (1,242) and Mumbai (1,192) the four cities together have reported almost 40.5 per cent of the total suicides reported from 35 mega cities.