New Delhi: According to the latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), around 43,000 farmers and daily laborers committed suicide in 2019. A total of 1,39,123 people committed suicide nationwide during the year. As per the data, 32,563 daily wage laborers ended their lives during the year. This number was about 23.4 percent of the total cases. In 2018, the number was 30,132 a year ago.
According to NCRB data, in 2019, 10,281 people (including 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural laborers) belonging to the agricultural sector committed suicide. This number is 7.4 percent of the total 1,39,123 cases of 2019 suicides in the country. Earlier, in 2018, a total of 10,349 agricultural farmers committed suicide. This number was 7.7 percent of the total suicide cases of that year. Working under the Union Home Ministry, the NCRB said that out of 5,957 farmers who committed suicide in the year 2019, 5,563 were males and 394 females. Of the 4,324 agricultural laborers who committed suicide during the year, 3,749 were males and 575 females.
According to the data, the highest number of farmers who committed suicide are from Maharashtra (38.2 percent), Karnataka (19.4 percent), Andhra Pradesh (10 percent), Madhya Pradesh (5.3 percent) and Chhattisgarh and Telangana (4.9 percent each). However, the NCRB said that there were no cases of “suicide” of farmers as well as agricultural laborers from West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Union Territory of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. “
Overall, 1,39,123 suicide incidents occurred in the country in 2019, while 1,34,516 in 2018 and 1,29,887 suicide cases in 2017 are reported. According to the classification, the most suicides were daily wage laborers (23.4 percent) followed by housewives (15.4 percent). This is followed by self-employed (11.6 percent), unemployed (10.1 percent), professionals or salaried (9.1 percent), students and persons from the agricultural sector (both 7.4 percent), and retired persons (0.9 percent). The NCRB stated that 14.7 percent of suicide victims fall into the category of “other persons”. 66.7 percent of those who committed suicide during the year were married while 23.6 percent were single.
According to the data, the educational background of the victims who committed suicide showed that 12.6 percent (17,588) of the total suicide victims were illiterate, while only 3.7 percent (5,185) were graduates and above. In the year 2019, the highest number of suicides was 23.3 percent (32,427) of those educated up to matriculation. On the other hand, 19.6 percent (27,323) of them were studying up to secondary level and 16.3 percent (22,649) were of primary school. After this, 14 percent (19,508) of the suicides were secondary or intermediate.
