NCRB Suicide Report 2020 | 71% Men; 29% Women | Married Men 1.6 Times Higher Than Married Women

Suicide is not a crime, but one trigger at that spur of the moment, that pushes anyone to take the extreme step. The reasons/causes for the same can be numerous, however, if the same are a result of situations created by the system, it is the duty of every central and state government to address the same.

Unfortunately, in India, we still wear the tag of being a “Patriarchal” society. Often, selective stories planted by global and very much our own domestic media, overlooks the grave problems Men & their families are facing due to Gender Biased Laws and also due to unreasonable privileges to every woman.

Let us analyse the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Suicide Report 2020, published on October 28, 2021.

Suicide Victims – Ratio (Male Vs Female)

India has recored a total of 153,052 suicides in the year 2020. The overall Male Vs Female ratio of suicide victims for the year 2020 was:

Male: 70.9
Female: 29.1

…which is more as compared to year 2019, where:

Male: 70.2
Female: 29.8

Suicide Victims – Sex (Male/Female/Transgender)

Out of 153,052 total suicides recorded in India 2020, the bifurcation of the same sex wise is as follows:

Male: 108,532
Female: 44,498
Transgender: 22

Male: Out of total 108,532 male suicides, maximum suicides were committed by daily wage earners (33,164) followed by self- employed persons (15,990) and Unemployed Persons (12,893).

Female: Out of total of 44,498 females who died by suicide during 2020 in the country, highest number (22,372) was of house-wives, followed by students (5,559) and daily wage earners (4,493).

Transgender: Out of 22 transgender, 5 were ‘Unemployed Persons’ and 9 were ‘Daily Wage Earners’, 2 each were ‘Self-employed Persons’ and ‘House- wives’, while 4 fall under ‘Other’ category.

Social Status Of Suicide Victims:

UN-MARRIED:

Male: 24,966
Female: 11,826

MARRIED:

Male: 73,093
Female: 28,085

WIDOWED/WIDOWER:

Male: 1,488
Female: 1,003

DIVORCEE:

Male: 501
Female: 330

SEPARATED:

Male: 693
Female: 268

OTHERS:

Male: 1,333
Female: 831

STATUS NOT KNOWN:

Male: 6,458
Female: 2,155

It is observed that 66.1% (1,01,181 out of 1,53,052) of the suicide victims were married, while 24.0% were un-married (36,803). Widowed/Widower, Divorcees and Separated have accounted for 1.6% (2,491 victims), 0.5% (831 victims) and 0.6% (963 victims) of total suicide victims respectively during 2020.

Causes For Suicides

Similar to last year, Family Problems remain the top cause for both Men and Women dying by suicide in India and occupy a whopping 33.6% of the total share. Illness becomes the second closest cause for suicide accounting 18% of the overall numbers.

What follows next:

Drug Abuse/ Addiction: 6%
Marriage Related Issues: 5%
Love Affairs: 4.4%
Bankruptcy or Indebtedness: 3.4%
Unemployment: 2.3%
Failure in Examination: 1.4%
Professional/Career Problem: 1.2%
Poverty: 1.2%

Professional Status of Suicide Victims

Details on professional status of suicide victims are presented as follows:

House- wives: 14.6%
Self- employed: 11.3%
Un-employed: 10.2%
Students: 8.2%
Farming Sector: 7%
Employees from Public Sector Undertakings 1.7%
Government Servants: 1.3%

NOTE: Out of 5,579 farmer/cultivator suicides, a total of 5,335 were male and 244 were female. Out of 5,098 suicides committed by agricultural labourers during 2020, 4,621 were male and 477 were female.

Suicide – Top 5 States/Union Territories

Majority of suicides were reported from:

Maharashtra: 13% (19,909)
Tamil Nadu: 11% (16,883)
Madhya Pradesh: 9.5% (14,578)
West Bengal: 8.6% (13,103)
Karnataka: 8% (12,259)

These 5 States together accounted for 50.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.

Delhi, which is the most-populous Union Territory, has reported the highest number of suicides (3,142) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (408). A total of 23,855 suicides were reported in the 53 mega cities of the country during the 2020.

Increase in Suicides:

The States and UTs which have reported significant percentage increase in suicides in 2020 over 2019 were:

Uttarakhand (82.8%)
Mizoram (54.3%)
Himachal Pradesh (46.7%)
Arunachal Pradesh (42.9%)
Assam (36.8%)
Jharkhand (30.5%)

Decrease in Suicides:

Highest percentage decrease was reported in:

Manipur (24.1%)
Puducherry (17.2%)
Uttar Pradesh (12.1%)
Haryana (4.5%)
Chandigarh (2.3%)

MDO Take:

Overall pattern for suicides is alarming as the number has gone up from 139,123 (in 2019) to 153,052 (2020)
However, one may want to attribute this increase to the global COVID pandemic, which has had rippled effects on all
As we publish stories related to the Male gender, we would like to keep our focus on the same in this report
The percentage of the male population in India is 51.96 percent as compared to 48.04% of the female population (source), however, suicide ratio for Males is 2.44 times higher than that of Females
Over the years, it has been observed that the number of suicides for females has been on the dip, or even the ratio of increase is limited
Certainly, every effort in empowering women and making them confident to lead lives under toughest circumstances is highly appreciated
However, in the bargain, Men have somewhere become the collateral damage in the entire Women Empowerment Game
Unfortunately, the term Empowerment has been replaced today with Appeasement – be it in politics, or corporate sector, brand endorsements, medical fields, education and others
Women are given reservations in the name of Gender – which means an equally qualified woman will get preference over an equally qualified man, which may be unfair to a deserving candidate

Coming to the categorisation of housewives as a segment in the report – While we may want to attribute most suicides by women due to family related problems, there is no data on Men dying by suicide due to domestic violence, abuse, humiliation from wives and in-laws
Dowry harassment suicides as equally bad as Alimony harassment suicides – But where dowry is considered to be illegal, alimony/maintenance is a legally aided extortion sword used against husbands
Gender Biased Laws are most critical when it comes to suicides of Men. They have become catalysts or tools to threaten innocent men and implicate them in either False Dowry, False Rape, False POCSO, False Domestic Violence and various other women centric laws which are completely biased in favour of women
Number of married men dying by suicide is 1.6 times than that of married women – In the absence of Men’s Commission alike Women’s Commission, the male gender has no where to go if they face matrimonial atrocities
When a harassed husband visits a police station, most often he is returned asking him to sort out his “Ghar Ka Mamla” (family matter)
When a married woman dies by suicide, society, police, her family are prompt to implicate husbands and their families (with or without their fault)
On the other hand, when a married man dies by suicide, in most cases wives and in-laws are never arrested, and if the matter happens to reach court, in most cases, they are promptly granted bail and subsequently acquittal (in several cases, wives have been let off despite detailed suicide note by husbands)
The criminalisation of matrimonial laws whether it is under Section 498A of the IPC, Domestic Violence Act 2005 and the very recent Triple Talaq, itself arm several disgruntled wives to constantly keep their husbands and their families under fear and threat
Equality and Empowerment of Women was a concept to bring Women at par with Men in the earlier patriarchal society – The concept cannot be overturned into a Punishment for Life or Death Penalty (read: suicide) by women and their families
Its time Government of India balances the heavily biased Gender Laws if it wants to move on a path of progress
As of now, the past trends from Modi government only tilt towards more appeasement gimmicks for women, leaving the Men with very less hope for things to change on the ground – Gender Appeasement is the New Minority Card which suits all parties irrespective of their ideologies
For Men in distress – It is that one moment that will end the momentary misery for you, but that one end will become a lifetime curse for your old parents – who will run from pillar to post to get justice for you
Fight the bad phases in your life, despite unfavourable laws. Speak to Men’s Rights NGOs on ground (details at the end of this article), gather courage to rebuild a shattered life – BUT DO NOT GIVE UP!

CLICK ON THE LINK TO READ FULL NCRB SUICIDE REPORT 2020Download

NCRB SUICIDE REPORT 2019 –

NCRB Suicide Report 2019 | Male – 98,000; Female – 41,000; Top Cause: Family Problems

ALSO WATCH –

World Suicide Prevention Day 2020

https://youtu.be/Usa4_oF6Nfo

Suicide Prevention Contact Details:

Men in distress due to family problems and threats of false cases can contact either of the NGOs listed here: Men Welfare Trust, MyNation Hope Foundation, Save Indian Family Foundation , Vaastav Foundation

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Tags: #MenToo gender biased laws ncrb ncrb suicide report 2020 speak up men voice for men

Comments 1

Shikha says:

3 years ago

Arnaz and MDO team, you are doing excellent work.

Such well written articles with solid background work and hard-core facts. I want to help you financially a lot but currently me and my family are fighting multiple false cases, thanks to my younger brother’s estranged wife, and too much financial crunch is there in my life.

As of now , I can only extend my verbal support to your work, though few days back, I did contribute a small amount to your cause.