The Problem of Suicide in India

A study conducted by Rajiv Radhakrishnan and and Chittaranjan Andrade on the historical, epidemiological and demographic factors of suicide in India and examines the strategies aimed at the prevention of suicide on hoping that the exposure of the problem will facilitate primary prevention planning. They found out that the suicide rates in India are so very high and there is a very distinct difference in the reason, modes and motives of suicide, from the western countries. Worldwide, suicide is among the three major causes of death especially among the youth.

According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) data that was available as of 2011, India ranks 43 in descending order of rates of suicide. On demographic examining of the suicides in India many factors are taken into account. One among those is age, where the suicide rate was highest in the 15-29 years age group followed by the 30-44 years group and the mean age of attempters was 25.3 years.

Second factor is gender, globally, attempted suicide is commoner in women and completed suicide is commoner in men whereas in India, the reason for greater female suicide rate is sociocultural as women were forced to live by the expectations of the society. Third factor is marital status, in the west, marriage is considered protective against suicide and it is not the same in developing countries and among attempters, men were more likely to be single and women were married. And other factors include education, family structure, urban / rural residence and occupation.

Further, in the study modea and motives are explained and discussed briefly. Hence the result gives pointers that there is need of strategy which will raise awareness and help make suicide prevention, a national priority which has long been recognized, wherein the solutions to suicide prevention may prove to be more complex than the problem of suicide itself.