Suicides in city goes up by 32 per cent

Whereas, all the four metropolitan cities recorded a fall in the number of people killing themselves

A 19-year-old girl hanged herselfat her Chandkheda residence on Sunday after the man she was in re lationshiprefused to marry her.» A 21-year-old medicine aspirant, committed suicide whenher name did not appear in the admis sion merit list on July 3. Her body wasdiscovered by her parents from her house.

Gujarat has much to worry about on people valuing their lives as Ahmedabad recorded 32.6 per cent rise in the number of suicides in 2014 over the figures for the previous year.

Incidentally, all metropolitan cities -Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata -recorded a fall whereas the number of people killing themselves in the city increased from 671 in 2013 to 890 in 2014. The data was published in `Accident deaths and suicides in India -2014', by the National Crime Records Bureau on Saturday.

“It is really surprising to know that the suicide rate in Ahmedabad is higher than in metropolitan cities. It is mainly because of growing urbanisation and family pressure. We get the highest number of calls from students and unemployed people,“ said Anita Rawal from Ahmedabad suicide helpline SAATH.

However, in 2012 when Rajkot had emerged as a suicide hot spot with 30 per cent rise in figures, in 2014 the suicide rate has fallen below the recorded number in 2013.

Further, Vadodara and Surat recorded an increase of 9.2 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively in 2014. The data also made a shocking revelation that 36 per cent of the Gujaratis who abruptly ended their lives were in the age group of 15 and 29 years.

Like most of the years, house wives committed the highest number of suicides followed by daily wage earners, businessmen and professionals. “People often think that only unemployed people commit suicide.We get several calls about high-salary people developing suicidal tendency due to work pressure,“ added Rawal.

With growing urbanisation, people are getting isolated which is becoming an emotional burden leading them to commit suicide, feel sociologists. “Though the state government has started `Beti bachao andolan' and the state has got a woman CM, in 50 per cent of those who commit suicide are women. Dowry is still an important reason for this,“ said sociologist Gaurang Jani.