Post-pandemic rise in suicides yet to subside, data indicates

Between 2019 and 2023, the number of people who died by suicides increased by 23% from 1,39,123 to 1,53,052.

For every 100 people who died in an accident in India in 2023, 38.6 died by suicide. While this number has fallen for the second consecutive year after 2022, it is still the highest in 14 years if one were to exclude the period after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Representational image.

Lest there is a confusion whether the rise in relative fatality from suicides is a result of fall in deaths due to accidents — this was indeed

Beyond the numbers

A comparison with another statistic also given in the ADSI report makes an interesting point about the post-pandemic discourse on public health. A lot of claims, including by people in important positions, such as the Karnataka chief minister recently, have been made to suggest that the post-pandemic period has seen a surge in sudden deaths by heart attacks and Covid-19 vaccines might have played a role behind an increase in such deaths. The ADSI report gives the number of deaths due to sudden heart attacks as a sub-category in accidental deaths. This number shows a 27.3% increase from 28,005 to 35,637 between 2019 to 2023. Prima facie, this would suggest that deaths because of sudden heart attacks have seen a bigger growth in the post–pandemic period than deaths by suicides which have only grown by 23%.

However, if one were to compare 2019-2023 numbers with 2015-19, same time interval pre-pandemic, then it emerges that growth in number of deaths by sudden heart attacks has fallen from 48.8% in 2015-19 period to 27.3% in the 2019-23 period while the growth in deaths by suicides has seen a huge increase from 4.1% to 23.2%. The trend in deaths by sudden heart attacks makes intuitive sense. It is perhaps a result of the growing burden of lifestyle disease among Indians and lack of timely medical attention and preventive measures. However, the spike in suicides post-pandemic is yet to see a theoretical response from the public health regime.

If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist.

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