Daily wagers' suicides double in six years; maximum in TN

New Delhi: With rampant unemployment, alcohol abuse, economic hardship, domestic violence, and indebtedness, India is suffering from a massive mental health crisis. The recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report revealed that nearly a quarter of the total 1,39,123 suicides recorded in 2019, the daily-wage earners comprised the largest chunk of such deaths.

However, the above-mentioned data does not include the daily wage workers working in the farming sector. As compared to the previous six years, the share of daily wage workers who died by suicides has doubled to 23.4 percent in 2019.

The report stated that in 2019, Tamil Nadu recorded the most number of suicides by daily-wage earners- 5,186, followed by Maharashtra 4,128, Madhya Pradesh 3,964, Telangana 2,858 and Kerala 2,809.

The NCRB began categorising daily-wagers in its 'Accidental Deaths & Suicides' data only post 2014. Since then, the suicide death rates among daily wage workers have been increasing at an alarming rate. In 2018, daily wage earners constituted the maximum percentage- 22.4% of 'suicides by profession.'

In 2014, daily wagers made up to 12 per cent of suicide deaths, but the figure has been rising sharply since — 17.8 per cent in 2015, 19.2 per cent in 2016, 22.1 per cent in 2017. From 2014 to 2019, the total number of suicides by daily wagers doubled from 15,735 to 32,563. The numbers also revealed that suicides by male daily earners are much higher than female earners. In 2019, out of total 32,563- 29,092 males, 3,467 females and 4 transgenders died by suicide.

The upward trend was not only noticed in daily wage workers but also amid the unemployed population. In 2019, the proportion of the unemployed in suicides was noted at 10.1 per cent, reaching double digits for the first time in the 25 years that the NCRB has been keeping data since 1995.

The 2019 total unemployed among the suicide deaths recorded a rise of 8.37 per cent from 2018's figure of 12,936. The five states accounting for most such deaths were Kerala- 10,963, Maharashtra- 1,511, Tamil Nadu- 1,368, Karnataka- 1,293 and Odisha- 858.

The NCRB report divides suicides into nine categories- daily wagers, housewives and persons engaged in the farming sector, while the deaths are listed under professionals /salaried persons, students, self-employed persons, retired persons, unemployed and other persons.