Story in numbers: India has suicide rate higher than the global average

India had the highest suicide rate in the Southeast Asia region in 2016, a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed. India’s own official statistics, which map the number and causes of suicides in the country, have not been made public for the last three years, hindering suicide prevention strategies and efforts to implement the WHO's recommendations in this regard.

India’s suicide rate stood at 16.5  per 100,000 people in 2016, according to the WHO report. This was higher than the global suicide rate of 10.5.

The report presented suicide rates for countries and regions using  the data from the WHO Global Health Estimates for 2016. When classified according to region and income, India is part of the Southeast Asia region and the lower middle-income group of countries. India’s suicide rate (16.5) was higher than the rate of its geographic region (13.4) and the rate of its income group (11.4).

India also had the highest suicide rate in the Southeast Asia region for females (14.5). India’s male suicide rate was not the highest in the region, but at 18.5, was more than the female rate and the combined suicide rate. India stood third in the region in the male suicide rate, after Sri Lanka (23.3) and Thailand (21.4).
 

India has not progressed beyond the first step, surveillance, defined in its 2014 report as the systematic collection of data on suicides and suicide attempts.

WHO recommendations

Despite having a suicide rate higher than the global average, India has not acted on the WHO’s recommendations for suicide prevention. In 2014, the WHO had released a report with a series of recommendations for successful suicide prevention. It proposed following the public health model for suicide prevention, consisting of four steps:

• Surveillance
• Identification of risks and protective factors
• Development & evaluation of interventions
• Implementation