Representative image (PTI)

New Delhi: According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the share of daily wage earners in all suicide deaths in 2024 was 31%, the highest share in a decade (2015-2024). A total of 52,910 daily wage earners died by suicide during the year, a sharp increase from the previous peak of 26.4% recorded in 2022.Casual labourers, a category that largely includes daily wage earners, constitute about one-fifth and the largest share of India’s total workforce. The total number of deaths by suicide in the country is expected to increase to 1.7 lakh by 2024 compared to 1.34 lakh in 2015.

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A comparative analysis of suicide deaths since 2015 shows that the three largest categories under “suicide victims by profession” include daily wage earners, housewives and self-employed people. However, the share of suicides among housewives and self-employed people has declined over the past decade.Similarly, the share of deaths by suicide among persons engaged in the agriculture sector declined from 8.7% in 2016 to 6.2% in 2024. The agriculture category was introduced in the NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report in 2016.According to the 2024 NCRB report, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of suicides among daily wage earners at 10,556 – almost one-fifth of all deaths in the country – followed by Maharashtra (6,811), Telangana (5,745), Madhya Pradesh (5,299) and Chhattisgarh (3,413). Among union territories, Delhi had the highest number of such deaths at 343.The report also said that 62.9% of the victims who committed suicide in 2024 – around 1.1 lakh individuals – had an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. Among the causes of suicide, “family problems” remained the leading cause, accounting for 35% of all deaths, with “illness” accounting for 17.9%.The major means of death by suicide were hanging (62.3%), consuming poison (24.5%), drowning (4.4%) and falling under moving vehicles or trains (2.5%).