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Stats IQ: Student Suicide Rate

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Context: A recent Right to Information (RTI) response from the National Medical Commission (NMC) said that 64 MBBS and 55 postgraduate students died by suicide in the last five years.

  • According to a study, 358 suicide deaths among medical students (125), residents (105) and physicians (128) were reported between 2010 and 2019.
  • Risk of suicide among doctors is almost 2.5 times more than the general population
  • Around seven out of 10 suicides took place before the age of 30.
  • Reason for Suicide:
    • Academic stress among medical students (45.2%) and residents (23.1%), and marital discord among physicians (26.7%) were the most noticeable reasons for suicide.
    • Mental ill-health was the next most common reason in medical students (24%) and physicians (20%), while harassment (20.5%) was a cause for residents.
    • Up to 26% had exhibited suicide warning signs and only 13% had ever sought psychiatric help before ending their lives.

NCRB on Suicide

  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) had also released the (Accidental Deaths and Suicide in India) ADSI Report in 2021.

Highlight of Report

Student Suicides in 2021:
  • The number of deaths by suicide by students saw an increase of 4.5% in 2021.
  • Maharashtra had the highest number of student deaths by suicide in 2021 with 1,834 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 1,308 and Tamil Nadu with 1,246 deaths.
Gender-wise student suicide rates:
  • The percentage of women’s student suicide was at a five-year low of 43.49% while men’s student suicides made up 56.51% of the total student suicides.
  • Women’s student suicides have increased. In 2017, 4,711 women students died by suicide while in 2021 such deaths increased to 5,693.
Educational status of student suicides:
  • The educational status of suicide victims was that only 4.6% of total suicide victims were graduates and above.
  • About 11% of the victims were illiterate, while 15.8% of them were educated up to the primary level.

Student Suicide Rate_4.1

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