1 out of every 5 Suicides in 2016 was that of a ‘Daily-Wage Earner’
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 13, 2019
More than 1.3 lakh people committed suicide in the year 2016 as per the recent ADSI-2016 report released by the NCRB. More than 25000 of these suicides were of ‘Daily Wage Earner’. Second in the list is ‘House Wives’ who accounted for more than 16% of the suicides. It has to be noted that the profession of the victim may not be related to the cause of the suicide.
AccidentalDeaths and Suicides in India (ADSI)
-2016, published by National Crime Records Bureau statesthat a total of 1,31,008 suicides were committed across India during 2016.
Thereare various factors and situations which lead to suicides. The ADSI report,which NCRB has been publishing
since 1967, provides data on various aspects related tosuicides, like – the age group, profession, socio economic profile  etc. This offers useful insights inunderstanding the trends related to the nature of suicides.
Inthis story, we look at suicides in the context of the profession. It has to benoted that , the data records only the profession of the person committingsuicide and the cause for the suicide might not be related to the profession.
Number
of Suicides in 2016 less than previous year, but still higher than 10 years ago
Thetrend in the number of suicides committed in India has been inconsistent. Theyear 2010 saw the highest increase in the number of suicides over the previousyear (increase of 7,448 suicides). The following year i.e. 2011, recorded thehighest number of suicides in  the decadewith 1,35,585 suicides. After a marginal declining trend over the next fewyears, the number of suicides increased in 2015 to 1.33 lakh and a fell in thesubsequent year of 2016. Ten years ago, in 2007, 1.23 lakh suicides were recorded.
Rate
of Suicides in 2016 at the lowest in 10 years
Duringthe 10-year period from 2007-2016, the population grew from 113.6 crores in2007 to 127.4 crores in 2016 ( this is a mid-year, projected populationestimate). This implies that the rate of suicides in 2007 was 10.8 (per onelakh population), which after an increase in 2010,has seen a subsequent declineover the years and is at 10.3 in 2016.
Daily
Wage Earners account for the highest share of suicides in 2016
Categorised by
profession, the highest number of suicides were committed by‘Daily Wage Earners’ in 2016.  A total of25,164 suicides were of daily wage earners i.e. 19.2% of the total suicides in2016. These daily wage earners do not include Agricultural labourers.
Secondin the list with 16.5% of the total suicides in 2016  is the category of ‘House wife’. A total of21,563 individuals who committed suicide were identified as a House wife . Self-employedindividuals accounted for a total of 13,507 suicide cases i.e. 10.3% of thetotal. A major portion these self-employed individuals own businesses. 11,379individuals engaged in farming activities as cultivators and agriculturallabourers committed suicide in 2016.
Whileprofessionals/salaried employees constitute 7.9% of the total  suicides in 2016, the highest number ofsuicides were of a separate category of Daily wage earners which was introducedonly in 2014. Their share in the total number of suicides has been increasingevery year. In 2014,15,735 suicides were categorised as of daily wage earners which constituted 12%of the total. In 2015 , the number increased to 23,799 or 17.8% and in 2016, their share in the totalsuicides went up to 19.2%.
Whilethere could be other factors which have contributed towards the higherincidence of suicides among daily wage earners, the economic stress and associatedfactors could be one of the key influencers. Unemployed individuals also have ahigher incidence with 8.3% of the total suicides in 2016.
Number of suicides of persons engaged in Farming sector has decreased over the last 10 years
Ofthe total suicides committed in India during 2016, 11,379 i.e. 8.7% were ofpersons engaged in the farming sector. As stated earlier in the story, thereasons behind committing suicides might not be farm related distress, andthere could be other factors for suicides.
In2007, persons engaged in farming sector constituted 13.6% of the total suicidesin India. The highest share was in  2009,with 13.7%. In the subsequent years, the share has substantially reduced. Inthe years 2014 and 2015, there was an increase in the share of suicides ofpersons engaged in farming sector. The highest number of suicides of personsengaged in farming activities in the past 10 years was in 2009 with 17,368suicides.
Prior to 2014, the ADSI report included ‘farming/agriculture’as a sub category of ‘Self-Employment’. However, since 2014, not only aseparate category ‘Persons Engaged in Farming Sector’ was introduced but also afurther break up was provided. This includes – Farmers/Cultivators who ownland, Farmers/Cultivators who use leased land and Agricultural labourers.
Suicides among the farmers working on leasedland, albeit less has increased over the three years. The number of suicidesamong the agricultural labourers has increased compared to the previous year. Factlyhad earlier written a detailed story on the state of such suicides.
Increase
in the number of Suicides among Students and Unemployed
Year2016 recorded the highest number of suicides among the unemployed in the last10 years. Out of the total suicides committed in 2016, 11,173 were of unemployedi.e. 8.5% of the total. Since 2012, when the number of suicides was 8,927 therehas been a consistent increase in the number of suicides among unemployed everyyear. Although the population of India has also grown during this period, theworrying aspect is the consistent increase in the share of suicides ofunemployed over the past few years. In 2013, suicides among unemployed were7.2% of the total suicides and increased every subsequent year i.e. 7.5%, 8.2%and 8.5% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Theshare of suicides of students out of the total has also been constantlyincreasing since 2008. In 2008, the share of student suicides was 4.8% whichhas increased nearly every year  (except2012). In 2016, students’ suicides were 7.2% of the total.
Thetotal number of students who committed suicides in 2016 was 9,478 which is thehighest in the last 10 years.  While theprofession of these suicides is given as ‘students’, the cause of the suicidemight not be related to only their education. However, as per ADSI
Report’s data relating to the cause of suicide, 2,408 suicides werereported as caused due to ‘failure in examination’, implying there are otherreasons which have prompted suicides among students.
Similarly,2298 cases were recorded as ‘Unemployment’ as a cause while a total of 11,173unemployed individuals committed suicide in 2016.
Share
of suicides of individuals working in private sector has reduced over the years
Theoverall share of suicides of individuals in various forms of employment (otherthan farming) has come down over the last 10 years.
In2007, 8.2% of the total suicides were of private sector employees. It was highin 2012 and 2013 with 9.4% and 9.2% respectively. However, over the past threeyears, there is a drastic decrease with suicides of private sector employees accountingfor only 5.2% in 2016. In absolute numbers, there were 10,068 suicides ofprivate employees in 2007 which reduced to 6,761 in 2016.
Meanwhile,the number of suicides of persons engaged in business has increased, though thesituation has improved in the last two years. In 2014, there were 9,894 suicidecases of  persons in business which was7.5% of the total suicides in that year.
Asnoted earlier in the story, housewives form the highest share among the totalsuicides, after daily wage labourers. Although their share has come down comparedto 10 years ago, the numbers are still high. In 2007, the number of housewiveswho committed suicide was 24,162 and was 19.7% of the total. Over the next fewyears, although there was marginal drop in the share, the absolute numbers wereon an increasing trajectory. In 2017, a total of 21,563 housewives committedsuicide.
Ambiguity
on ‘Others’ who form the largest share does not provide a complete picture
Nearly21% of the suicides are not categorized under any of the profession categoriesin the report. The profession categories provided themselves are broadclassifications, which  accommodate mostof the professional pursuits, including the cases where the persons are unemployedor students. The ‘Others’ could therefore be a result of information missingwhile a case is being recorded.
However,a review of recent reports indicates an effort to provide more clarity in termsof profession. For example, the categorization of person engaged in farming,which offers better insights than earlier.
As already stated earlier, these numbers indicate only the profession of the person who committed suicide and not necessarily profession being the reason for suicide. Analysing these details in the light of other parameters like cause, socio-economic status etc. could offer better insights.
Featured Image: Suicides in India