National Suicide Prevention Strategy

Published on 13 Feb 2025

According to NCRB report, around 1.64 lakh Indians committed suicide in 2021, which is an increase of 7.17% from the 2020 level. This increased suicide counts in India has necessitated the government to introduce a National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.

Reason for increasing suicide rate in India

✔ Family issues: Interpersonal conflicts, strained relationships and family disputes affect the mental health of a person and lead to suicides.

● Example: According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32% of the suicides in India have been due to family problems. Another 4.8% has been due to marriage-related problems.

✔ Economic stress: Unemployment, poverty, and debt trap, along with associated harassment and threats could compel people to commit suicides.

● Example: As per NCRB, one-fourth of the suicide victims are daily wage workers, showing the economic side of suicides.

✔ Illness: Some people commit suicide when they get diagnosed with fatal illness, mainly due to lack of financial resources to treat the disease.

● Example: As per NCRB, Illness was the reason for around 18% of suicides in India.

✔ Drug intoxication: Drug addiction can detriment the mental health of a person and make them more prone to suicides.

● Example: As per NCRB, in 2021, over 10000 suicides in India have been linked to drug abuse and alcohol consumption.

✔ Educational pressure: High educational standards and intense competitions can stress the students. The failure to meet expectation can push them to suicides.

● Example: As per NCRB, 8% students died by suicide, with 1% of the case due to exam failure.

✔ Lack of professional help: India lags in terms of mental health professionals and the public spending on mental health is low. Lack of support during times of stress and anxiety can make people vulnerable and they commit suicides.

● Example: India only has 0.7 mental health professionals for one lakh persons, while standards suggest 3 professionals per one lakh population.

✔ Lack of awareness: Importance of mental health & stress management has been neglected in family, education institutes and workplace, which reduces the awareness among all age groups.

Targets specified under National Suicide Prevention Strategy

✔ Time bound suicide reduction: Targets to reduce suicides by 10% by 2030 (As per National Suicide Prevention Strategy). It is the first time India has introduced a time bound action plan for suicide reduction.

✔ Psychiatric outpatient department: Under the District Mental Health Programme, psychiatric outpatient departments will be established in all districts within the next five years.

✔ Effective surveillance: The strategy provides for robust surveillance mechanism within the next three years for suicide prevention.

✔ Mental wellbeing curriculum: To integrate a mental wellbeing curriculum in all educational institutions by 2030.

✔ Media control: Developing guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restricting access to means of suicide.

Hence, the strategy has adopted a holistic approach to reduce the suicide rate in India by improving the mental health of the people. More programmes to address the economic and social stress need to be added in the coming years to make the strategy more fruitful.