Post-pandemic rise in suicides yet to subside, data indicates

For every 100 people who died in an accident in India in 2023, 38.6 died by suicide. While this number has fallen for the second consecutive year after 2022, it is still the highest in 14 years if one were to exclude the period after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

- Roshan Kishore and Sreedev Krishnakumar

Lest there is a confusion whether the rise in relative fatality from suicides is a result of fall in deaths due to accidents — this was indeed the case during the lockdown phase — the suicide rate in India, suicides per 100,000 population was 12.3 in 2023, the second highest after 12.4 in 2022 since 1966, the earliest year for which this data is available from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Another data point from the NCRB report on Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report — the 2023 edition was released — underlines the seriousness of the problem. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of people who died by suicides increased by 23% from 1,39,123 to 1,53,052. The growth in the number of people who died in accidents increased by less than 6% during this period.