IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review

2013 Indian Association of Health,

Research and Welfare

Studies, 2013, 1(1), 29-34

Suicide: Psychosocial risk factors and its prevention

Pradeep Kumar

Samrat Singh Bhandari

Psychiatric Social Worker, State Institute of Mental Health

PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana

Department of Psychiatry, Sikkim Manipal

Institute of Medical Sciences, Gangtok

Dharmender Kumar Nehra

Altaf Paul

Clinical Psychologist, State Institute of Mental Health

PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana

Department of Psychology
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Suicide is among the top three causes of death among youth worldwide.Suicidal behavior is a due to a complex
interaction of social, environment, biological and cultural factors.Suicide in the Indian context calls for an
appreciation of the literary, religious, and cultural ethos of the subcontinent because tradition has rarely permeated
the lives of people for as long as it has in India.Suicide is an important, largely preventable public health
problem.There is a growing recognition that prevention strategies need to be tailored to the region-specific
demographics of a country and to be implemented in a culturally-sensitive manner.The motives and modes of
suicide are also distinct from western countries. Preventive strategies implemented at a community level and
identifying vulnerable individuals maybe more effective than global strategies.

Keywords: suicide, prevention, culture

Every year, almost 1 million people commit suicide worldwide. It is
about 1.5% of all deaths, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death
globally. Every 40 seconds another family loses a loved one to suicide.
In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide.
Suicide is among the three leading cause of death among those aged 1544 years in some countries and the second leading cause of death in the
10-24 years age group; these figures do not include suicide attempts
which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide.
There is relatively little research on suicide in highly populated
nations such as India and China, in which more than half of the world's
suicides occur (Beautrais, 2006).National suicides statistics in India for
2008 showed that young adults age between 15 and 29 years accounted
for 35.7% of all suicides that year (NCRD, 2008).The actual numbers
of suicides is likely to be higher; a suicide attempt is a punishable
offence in India and families often do not report suicides or suicides
attempts to avoid facing stigma and shame (Vijaykumar, 2007).
According to WHO report based on suicide from different countries,
the highest rate of suicide is found in Eastern Europe while Asia has the
highest numbers of suicide accounted for upto the 60% of all suicide.
The suicide rate in Asia has been calculated as 12.6/100000.Folowing
are the rates of suicide in Asian countries (per 100000 inhabitants).
Country

Year

Male

Female

China (Hong Kong)

China (mainland)
India
Japan
Republic of Korea
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Thailand

1995
1994
1995
1996
1995
1997
1995
1994

14.3
14.3
11.4
24.3
14.5
14.3
44.6
5.6

9.2
17.9
8.0
11.5
6.7
8.0
16.8
2.4

Worldwide, among adolescent 15-19 age group suicide was the forth
Correspondence should be sent to Pradeep Kumar, Psychiatric
Social Worker, State Institute of Mental Health PGIMS, Rohtak

leading cause of death among young males and the third for young
female. According to the latest WHO Mortality Database (Wasserman et
al., 2005). The suicide rates in the young people in the 15-19age group
( per 100000) in Asian countries is presented in the following table:
Country

Year

Male

Female

China (Hong Kong)

China (selected rural and urban areas)
Japan
Republic of Korea
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Thailand

1999
1999
2000
2001
2001
1986
1994

5.1
3.2
8.8
5.9
9.2
43.9
6.1

5.3
4.8
3.8
4.9
7.8
49.3
5.1

Suicide is an important issue in the Indian context. More than one lakh
(one hundred thousand) lives are lost every year to suicide in our
country. In the last two decades, the suicide rate has increased from 7.9
to 10.3 per 100,000. There is a wide variation in the suicide rates within
the country. The southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu have a suicide rate of > 15 while in the Northern States
of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, the suicide
rate is < 3. This variable pattern has been stable for the last twenty
years. Higher literacy, a better reporting system, lower external
aggression, higher socioeconomic status and higher expectations are the
possible explanations for the higher suicide rates in the southern states.
In India, society and law is not all that fair towards suicide
victims. Suicide is amongst the top ten causes of death here and is
amongst the top three between the ages of 16-35 years. In 1984,
around, 6.8 people per lakh committed suicide while in 1994 the
figure rose to 9.9 per lakh. Today in India, 2740 attempts suicide on a
day basis while 275 Indians kill themselves everyday by suicide. It is
estimated that over 100,000 people die by suicide in India every
year. India alone contributes to more than 10% of suicides in the
world. The suicide rate in India has been increasing steadily and has
reached 11.2 (per 100,000 of population) in 2011 registering 78%
increase over the value of 1980 (6.3). Majority of suicides occur
among men and in younger age groups. Despite the gravity of the