A student studying medicine in the capital Delhi committed suicide. 30-year-old Amit Kumar was studying medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College. Amit Kumar committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room. Similarly, last month in Kota, a 16-year-old student also committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room. He had come to Kota from Bihar to take coaching for IIT.
If you search on the internet, you will find many cases of student suicides. But the new revelations that have come out regarding student suicides are really shocking.
A new report claims that the population in India is not increasing as fast as the cases of student suicides are increasing. This shows that suicidal tendencies are increasing rapidly among students in India.
This report has been shared in the annual conference of IC3. This report has been prepared on the basis of data from the central government agency National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). IC3 is a non-profit organization that works on education around the world.
What information came out?
This report states that cases of suicide in India are increasing at the rate of 2% every year. Whereas, the rate of suicide cases among students has increased by 4% annually. It warns that many cases of student suicides are not even registered, which shows how serious this problem is becoming.
The report claims that in the last decade, the population of people up to 24 years of age has decreased from 58.2 crores to 58.1 crores, while during the same period, cases of student suicide have increased from 6,654 to 13,044.
A UNICEF report shows that 1 in every 7 people aged 15 to 24 in India is suffering from poor mental health. This also includes symptoms of depression. Surprisingly, only 41% of those surveyed thought it appropriate to go to a counselor to deal with mental health challenges.
Also read: There is no law… why are the courts unable to provide justice to men who are victims of sexual assault?
Frightening statistics…
– 13,089 students committed suicide in 2021. In comparison, 13,044 cases of student suicide were reported in 2022. There was a nominal decrease in 2022 as compared to 2021.
– There was a 4% increase in suicide cases in 2022 as compared to 2021. In 2021, 1.64 lakh people committed suicide, while in 2022 more than 1.70 lakh people committed suicide.
– Of all the people who committed suicide in the country in 2022, 7.6% were students. Whereas, the number of people associated with agriculture was 6.6%. That is, students are committing more suicides than people associated with agriculture or farmers.
– Gender-wise, the number of male students committing suicide is higher. However, in the last 10 years, cases of suicide by male students have increased by 50%, while cases of female students have increased by 61%. In the last five years, cases of suicide by both male and female students have increased by 5% annually.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are the three states where students commit the most suicides. One-third of the cases of student suicide have been reported in these states. In these three states, more than four and a half thousand cases of student suicide were reported in 2022.
Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state and is among the top-5 states where the highest number of student suicide cases are reported. In Uttar Pradesh, 1,060 cases of student suicide were reported in 2022. Whereas, 571 cases were registered in Rajasthan.
More men commit suicide
If we look at the NCRB data, it shows that the number of men committing suicide is much higher than that of women.
Data from two decades shows that out of every 10 people who commit suicide in India, 6 or 7 are men. During 2001 to 2022, the number of women committing suicide every year was between 40 to 48 thousand. Whereas, during the same period, the number of men committing suicide increased from 66 thousand to over 1 lakh.
In 2022, more than 1.70 lakh people committed suicide, out of which more than 1.22 lakh were men. That means on an average 336 men commit suicide every day. According to this, one man is committing suicide every 4 and a half minutes.
Not just India, but statistics from all over the world show that men commit more suicides. According to WHO, out of every one lakh men in the world, 12.6 commit suicide. On the other hand, this rate is 5.4 out of every one lakh women.
But why is it so in men?
Every person has a different reason for committing suicide. Experts believe that the tendency to commit suicide is increasing due to depression and stress. Sometimes there is a medical reason as well. Apart from this, when a person does not have any way out of his problem, he commits suicide.
NCRB has also mentioned the reasons for suicide in its report. According to it, most people commit suicide due to family problems and illness (AIDS, cancer etc.). Last year, 32% suicides happened due to family problems and 19% due to illness. However, it does not tell for which reasons men and women committed suicide.
However, the report shows that about 60 percent of the men who committed suicide were either daily wage labourers or did some work of their own or were unemployed. That is, it is possible that the reason for their suicide was financial crisis.
A research was done in 2011. In this, an attempt was made to find out why men commit more suicides than women. This research revealed that men are often considered powerful and strong in society and due to this they are unable to share their depression or suicidal feelings with others and in the end, tired and frustrated, they take the step of suicide.
In 2003, a study was conducted in Europe on suicide among men. This study showed that the risk of suicide increases during unemployment because men feel that they are unable to live up to the expectations of society and family.
Apart from all this, addiction to alcohol and drugs is also considered to be a reason for suicide in men, because addiction increases suicidal tendencies.
Also read: Laws have changed but the situation has not… still 86 rapes happen every day, know which state is the most ‘unsafe’ for women
Is attempting suicide a crime?
There is often a debate about whether attempting suicide is a crime? The answer is – it was earlier but not now. In the IPC, attempting suicide was a crime. But there is no such provision in the Indian Judicial Code. However, it has Section 224, which says that whoever attempts suicide with the intention of forcing or preventing a public servant from performing his duty, can be punished with imprisonment up to one year and fine.
However, Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 provides relief to people suffering from stress who attempt suicide. This section says that if it is proved that the person who attempted suicide was under extreme stress, then he cannot be given any kind of punishment.
However, suicide is a serious psychological and social problem. If you too have any problem, then talk to friends and relatives or take medical advice. If you take the right advice at the right time, then it can be prevented to a great extent.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)