In 2019, a person died by suicide every four minutes: NCRB data

NEW DELHI: Last year, 139,123 died by suicide and 421,104 were killed in accidents in India, according to the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report for 2019 released by the National Crime Records Bureau on Monday. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of people dying in accidents increased by 2.3% while for suicides, this number was 3.4%. Traffic accidents were the single-biggest contributor to accidental deaths in India, amounting to 43% of all such fatalities. Sudden deaths, drowning and poisoning were other major causes of accidental deaths. These together led to 24% of accidental deaths. Forces of nature, such as natural disasters, killed 8,000 people, or 2% of all accidental deaths,. Eighty-five percent of deaths caused in traffic accidents were reported in road accidents while railway accidents and accidents at railway crossings caused the remaining 15% of these deaths. Road accidents kill even those not travelling in a vehicle. Of nearly 155,000 people who died in road accidents, nearly 12,000 or 7.7% were pedestrians. Among motorised vehicles, twowheelers were the deadliest with nearly 59,000 or 38% of all deaths being of those who were on a motorcycle or a scooter. One in every three of the 140,000 people who died of suicide in 2019 took the step due to family problems. Being ill, and substance abuse were the other major known causes (together accounting for 23%). Bankruptcy or indebtedness, unemployment and poverty led to at least than 11,500 suicides, about 8.2% of all such fatalities. The report added that 10,281 farmers – cultivators and farm labourers – committed suicide in 2019, only 68 less than the number of farmers who committed suicide in 2018. Farmers comprise 7.4% of all people who died due to suicide in India. Suicides among daily wage earners was higher — about 32,500. They comprised 23% of those who died due to suicide. The NCRB has not been publishing reason of suicides among farmers since 2015, when it last showed economic distress to be the biggest factor in most states.