15 Suicides PER Hour!

According to the Indian government, more than 15 people commit suicide each hour. The statistic revealed that out of the 1.2 billion population, about 139,000 committed suicide. This was a 5.9% increase from the figure last year.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, last year recorded a suicide rate was 10.9% with this year seeing an increase to 11.4% this year.

Male suicides were mainly due to debts and financial difficulties while females’ were due to domestic pressures such as mental and physical abuse and also demands for dowry.

The 2008 World Health Organizing report ranked India 41st in terms of suicide. This accounted for 20% global suicides.

The figures showed that southern Indian states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Tamil, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest rates of suicide in India.

The impoverished farmers in these states killed themselves mainly due to insurmountable debts as a result of loans from banks and loan sharks acquired to buy seeds, farm equipment, large dowries to get their daughters married that plunged them over the edge.

Sociologists in India say most people in India commit suicide due to high expectancy from the recent booming Indian economy. Their aspirations get too high and when they are not attained, they tend to commit suicide. This mostly happens to those who belong to the lower and middle classes.

Abhilasha Kumari, a sociology professor in New Delhi said one factor accounting for the increase in suicide rates was the fact that young men who left their traditionally large and village communities to urban settlements where there are no family supports and thus commit suicide since they have no one to turn to in times of distress.