Farm Suicides Drop A Little In 2019; Maharashtra Leads Chart

• 02 Sep 2020

• The number of suicides by those engaged in the farm sector witnessed a marginal decline in 2019 as compared to 2018, with their share in the country’s 1.39 lakh suicides too falling to 7.4% from 7.7% during the corresponding period as per the report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ (ADSI) for the year 2019 released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
• Maharashtra accounted for the highest share (38.2%) in suicides related to the farm sector in 2019, followed by Karnataka (19.4%), Andhra Pradesh (10%), Madhya Pradesh (5.3%) and Telangana/Chhattisgarh (4.9% each).
• Interestingly, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported ‘zero’ suicides by farmers, cultivators and agricultural labourers in 2019.

Other Findings

• Overall, the total suicides in the country rose 3.4% from 1.34 lakh in 2018 to 1.39 lakh last year.
• Rate of suicides too (suicides per lakh of population) too went up from 10.2 to 10.4 in the corresponding period.
• Family problems, marriage-related issues and illness together accounted for around 55% of the total suicides in the country.
• While 70.2% of the suicide victims were male, 29.8% were women.