Maharashtra tops in cases of suicide for ideological causes

Over the past few months, Maharashtra seen a substantial number of suicides that are said to have been fuelled by the Maratha reservation protest.

The state has also reported the highest number of suicides in the country with 22,746 cases. While 19,834 people ended their lives by suicide in Tamil Nadu, 15,386 suicides took place in Madhya Pradesh, 13,606 in Karnataka and 12,669 in West Bengal.

“These five states together accounted for 49.3 per cent of the total suicides reported in the country. The remaining 50.7 per cent suicides were reported in the remaining 23 states and eight Union Territories,” read the NCRB report.

Family related issues are cited as the leading cause of suicides in the state with 6,961 cases categorised as such, followed by relationship issues at 6,477. Around 378 people ended their lives due to failure in examinations, the report said.

Unemployment, poverty and career issues were also cited as reasons for suicide in 2022. As per the data, “642 died due to unemployment in Maharashtra, 402 due to poverty and 640 because of problems in their professional lives”.

Looking at the type of suicides, the NCRB data shows 14,730 instances of hanging, 4,195 instances of consuming poison and 1,665 instances of drowning.

Maharashtra also ranked first in suicides due to bankruptcy and marriage related issues. As many as 1,941 cases were reported due to bankruptcy or indebtedness in the state, followed by Karnataka with 1,335 and Andhra Pradesh with 815 such cases. In marriage related issues, 513 died by suicide in the state, while the numbers were 348 in Uttar Pradesh and 238 in Rajasthan.

In cities, Mumbai ranked fourth in the number of suicides reported in 2022, while Delhi had 3,367 cases of suicide followed by Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai with 2313, 1581 and 1501 cases respectively.