To be, or not to be: A study of suicides in India

Ray, Shaswata and Husain, Zakir (2019): To be, or not to be: A study of suicides in India.

Abstract

Suicide is a complex public health and social issue of global dimension, which has taken a staggering toll on global public health, with almost one million people dying annually due to suicide worldwide. A WHO report in 2016 found that 79% of the global suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries like India. This study looks at the regional and across time variations in the incidence of suicides across the different states and union territories of India. The rates of suicide differ across the different demographics and regions of the country, with there being specific clusters of states with high or low suicide rates. Suicide is a societal crisis and is hence related to various socio-economic factors like income, inequality, education, unemployment, etc. A regression analysis has been done studying the dependence of such variables on suicide rates of various states, with income, degree of industrialisation of the economy and education levels evidencing to be important correlates with suicide rate.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Suicide; Regional variations in suicide; Determinants of suicide rate; Panel data; India.
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; Z - Other Special Topics > Z0 - General

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