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The TLDR: Each year, without fail, there is a story on the high rate of suicide by housewives in India. And yet more men die by suicide than women in this country—and by a magnitude. Rather than get into futile debates over who is more at risk, we look at the different reasons why Indian men and women take that irrevocable step.
The big picture
Here’s the latest data on suicide in India:
- Suicides rose 10% from 2019 to an all-time high of 1,53,052 during the pandemic in 2020. This was the highest jump since 1982.
- The number of suicides per lakh—the suicide rate—also spiked from 10.4% to 11.3% in 2020.
- Unsurprisingly, daily wage earners made up the largest share at 37,666—and account for 24.6% in 2020. That share has doubled between 2014 to 2020.
- Next in line, housewives who make up 14.6% of the total—and represent more than 50% of the total number of women who killed themselves.
- Big data point to note: “India reports the highest numbers of suicides globally: Indian men make up a quarter of global suicides, while Indian women make up 36% of all global suicides in the 15 to 39 years age group.”
- Also this: multiple studies show that suicides in India are under-reported by between 30% and 100%.
The gender split: Men accounted for nearly 71% of total suicides—45,000 women died by suicide compared to more than 100,000 men.
Looking at Indian women…
The data: It isn’t exactly news that women are one of the most vulnerable groups in India.
- According to a 2018 Lancet study, Indian women accounted for over one third (36.6%) of female suicides in the world in 2016, up from 25.3% in 1990—and married women made up the highest percentage.
- Suicide was the leading cause of death among Indian women ages 15 to 29.
- More importantly this: If you compare India to other countries with similar education levels, average income etc, we have the highest suicide rate among young and middle-aged women.
- Since 2001, more than 20,000 housewives have died by suicide each year.
- According to the latest numbers, an average of 61 housewives lost their lives every day—or one every 25 minutes—to suicide.
The reasons offered for these appalling numbers remain almost exactly the same.
Marriage: One of the authors of the Lancet study points out that young women between the ages of 15 and 30 are most at risk. After 30, suicide rates among Indian women drops dramatically. One likely reason:
“Indian women below the age of 30 were exposed to major life changes and social pressures that come after marriage. Many lived with their in-laws in a patriarchal joint family setup and were denied basic freedom. But after 30, most women had children and [their] status in the family changed. Even though the pressures and difficulties remained the same, her attention shifted to her children. She became less suicidal.”
Point to note: Suicide rates for men remains the same irrespective of age.
Domestic violence: The most recent government survey shows that 30% of all women are victims of violence at home. And independent research suggests that one-third of Indian women who take their lives have a history of domestic violence—which is not even mentioned in government data as a cause for suicide.
Education: Greater literacy fosters greater ambitions and independence—which are soon crushed by marriage, as a clinical psychologist notes:
“She becomes a wife and a daughter-in-law and spends her entire day at home, cooking and cleaning and doing household chores. All sorts of restrictions are placed on her, she has little personal freedom and rarely has access to any money of her own. Her education and dreams no longer matter and her ambition begins to extinguish slowly, and despair and disappointment set in and the mere existence become torture."
It’s another reason why suicide rates for women are higher in southern states with higher female literacy, according to the Lancet study authors: “suicide rates in the rural, more traditional northern states could be lower because women there may have ‘less knowledge that they could actually live a better life.’”
One interesting exception: Kerala—perhaps because it is less patriarchal than other states.
Lack of community support: Ironically, the same Indian traditions that destroy women’s ambitions can also offer protection:
“[T]he researchers say that suicide rates among housewives are lowest in the most ‘traditional’ states, where family sizes are big and extended families are common. Rates are higher in states where households are closer to nuclear families—Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.”
And it’s not just families. As one Mumbai psychiatrist notes, Indian housewives form informal support groups with neighbours etc.—which disappeared during the pandemic:
“They had no other avenue to express themselves and sometimes their sanity depended on this conversation they could have with just one person… Housewives had a safe space after the menfolk would leave for work, but that disappeared during the pandemic.”
Looking at Indian men…
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