Self-employed People Are More Prone To Suicide Than Salary Earners

Self-employed people are more prone to committing suicide as compared to salaried workers. In service too, private sector employees are more likely to commit suicide than those working with the government.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2014 shows that self-employed people (including agriculture and business) accounted for 19.7% of all suicides, making them the biggest single group among suicide victims. Among the self-employed though, businessmen were safer than those engaged in agriculture.

Of all the suicide victims in 2014, 9.4% were engaged in agriculture while only 7.5% were engaged in business.

The salaried class with financial security is just as vulnerable as businessmen, accounting for 7.5% of all suicides. Government service, however, is a much safer bet for a long life. Only 1.7% of the suicide victims were engaged in government service.

With no job security, private sector employees are more vulnerable.

They accounted for 4.7% of all suicides. Employees of public sector undertakings (PSU) accounted for only 1.1% of the victims.

Students and unemployed victims accounted for 6.1% and 7.5% of suicides respectively. However, the group most vulnerable to suicides is that of housewives.

They accounted for 15.3% of all suicides committed in 2014. Making a case for economic independence of women, they also made up for 47.4% of all female victims.

Most housewives committed suicide in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The two states had 24.5% and 24.1% victims as housewives respectively.

Government servants accounted for 22.2%, 16%, 15.4%, 12.2% & 6.9% of suicides victims in Daman & Diu, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram respectively. In Andaman and Nicobar islands 52.9% victims were employed with the private sector. In Chandigarh the same figure stood at 27.6%.

Indiatimes