India recorded 153,052 suicides — an average of 418 daily — in 2020, said the annual report of NCRB
Nagpur: In a disturbing development, Maharashtra topped the chart as maximum suicides were reported in the State in the year 2020. The annual report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated the statistics.
Total 19,909 suicides were recorded in Maharashtra followed by 16,883 in Tamil Nadu, 14,578 in Madhya Pradesh, 13,103 in West Bengal, and 12,259 in Karnataka accounting for 13 per cent, 11 per cent, 9.5 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 8 per cent of the total suicides, respectively.
The NCRB report said that India recorded 153,052 suicides — an average of 418 daily — in 2020. The 2020 figures were more in comparison to 2019 when 139,123 suicides were recorded in the country. Suicide rate (per lakh population) also increased from 10.4 in 2019 to 11.3 last year, the NCRB, which functions under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated.
The five states together accounted for 50.1 per cent of the total suicides reported in the country, while the remaining 49.9 per cent were reported from the remaining 23 states and eight Union Territories (UTs), the NCRB said.
Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state with 16.9 per cent share of the country’s population, reported a comparatively lower percentage share of suicidal deaths, accounting for only 3.1 per cent of the total suicides. Delhi, which is the most populous UT, reported the highest number of suicides (3,142) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (408), the NCRB report showed.
A total of 23,855 suicides were reported in the 53 mega cities of the country in 2020, the report showed, observing that the suicide rate in cities (14.8) was higher as compared to all-India suicide rate (11.3).
According to the report, ‘family problems’ (33.6 per cent), ‘marriage-related problems’ (5 per cent) and ‘illness’ (18 per cent) together accounted for 56.7 per cent of total suicides in the country during 2020. The overall male to female ratio of suicide victims was 70.9 to 29.1, the report stated.
