The state of mental health

There are reports about how the suicide rates in India have been steadily climbing up. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, India reported an average 381 deaths by suicide daily in 2019, totalling 1,39,123 fatalities over the year. That’s a huge number of people killing themselves!

The data showed that the biggest reason were family problems (other than marriage-related issues) at 32.4%, marriage-related problems (5.5%) and illness (17.1%) together accounted for 55% of the total suicides in the country during 2019. We don’t have the data yet, but chances are that in this pandemic and lockdown, these numbers will only show an increase for 2020.

On the other hand, Japan which usually has high numbers of suicides, reported a fall. The number of people who took their own lives from February to June was down 13.5% from the average for that time. And why did it come down despite the pandemic? Reduced working hours and government support may have eased pressure and contributed to the decrease.

Another data - Office for National Statistics said the number of suicides in Britain at the peak of the pandemic was down from 10.3% per 100,000 people to 6.9% 100,000.

The mental unrest is for certain and for countries where there were strict lockdowns, social unrest, economic problems and hunger, we will a huge toll on mental health.