''One Indian commits suicide every 4 minutes; men more vulnerable''

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 22

The latest health statistics paint a grim picture of India’s mental health revealing that one person commits suicide every four minutes.

The National Health Profile 2018 raises alarm over the increasing numbers of suicide deaths–a whopping 1,33,623 in a year.

This translates into 366 suicide deaths every day and 15 an hour.

The data also show increasing vulnerability of Indian men vis-à-vis women.

Nearly 70 per cent of all suicide deaths in India involve males. Of the 1,33,623 people who killed themselves, 68.49 per cent (91,528) were men as against 42,088 women.

The number of suicides by men has risen from 66,032 in 2000 and 80,544 in 2008 to 91,528 now. The number of male deaths from suicides is nearly double than that of females.

According to the latest data, the highest suicide burden is in Maharashtra (16,970 deaths), followed by Tamil Nadu (15,777) and Bengal (14,602).

Health data also reveal that suicides are the highest in the productive age group of 30 to 45. Trends call for massive shift in government policy to address the rising burden of mental health disorders, an emerging challenge under the larger non-communicable disease bracket.

WHO’s Global Disease Burden release last month also underlined the need for member nations to contain suicide deaths by tweaking policy. WHO asked all member states to ensure employers factor in mental health when crafting recruitment policies.

The issue has become even more pressing with people killing themselves and streaming the act online.