A statistical study of suicidal behavior of Indians

Background: According to the reports published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) India, every year, the number of suicides are continuously increasing. The number of suicidal deaths in 2014 is 15.8% more than 2004. Objectives: To briefly overview the recent trends in the number of suicides and study risk factors for suicides, means of suicides in India. We explore the association of suicidal deaths and some attributes such as gender (sex), age group and profession of suicide victims. Method: Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and subset MCA are used to study the association of attributes. Results: In India, family problems and health problems are major reasons for suicides. The association between the risk factors for suicides, means of suicides, gender, profession, age group of suicide victims is studied and explored using biplots. Conclusions: The leading risk factors for suicides are family problems, illness, drug addiction, failure in examination, etc. Hanging and poisoning are the common means adopted by males and females while females most frequently commit suicide by fire/self-immolation. As per the association of attributes studied, government of India has to launch ‘Anti-suicide campaigns’ at all levels regularly and the campaign should consider gender, age group, profession while structuring the campaign.