One in four of the suicide victims during 2021 was a daily wager: report
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New Delhi: Most daily wagers live from hand to mouth. They lead a pretty difficult lives, often having next to nothing.
Now the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has found rampant suicides among this vulnerable group.
One in four of the recorded 1, 64,033 suicide victims during 2021 was a daily wager.
At the national level, appalling suicide rates are being reported which has increased by 7.17 per cent from the years 2020 to 2021.
More shocking is the number of suicides among daily wagers which has gone up by 11.52 per cent during this period.
Daily wagers form the largest among profession-wise groups in suicide rates with42,004 suicides (25.6 per cent), according to the report titled "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India" in 2021.
The trend was happening in 2020 too with 37,666 (24.6 per cent) daily wagers killing themselves among 1, 53,052 recorded suicides in the nation.
More shockingly, the latest report shows rates of suicide among daily wage group is going up in the current year, faster than the national average, according to The Indian Express.
The report lists the daily wage numbers separately from agricultural labourers, who have been grouped as "Persons engaged in farming sector".
As many as 10,881 suicides were recorded in the "Persons engaged in farming sector" group in 2021, which includes 5,318 under "farmer/cultivator" and 5,563 "agricultural labourers".
The number of suicides committed by "farmer/cultivator" has dipped ( 5,579 in 2020 and 5,957 in 2019).
However, self-killing among "agriculture labourers" has risen sharply from 5,098 in 2020 and 4,324 in 2019.
The NCRB recorded suicides across nine groups: students, professional/ salaried persons, daily wage earner, retired persons, unemployed persons, self-employed persons, house wife, persons engaged in farming sector and other persons.
Among these groups, the highest increase in suicide at 16.73 per cent was recorded by "self-employed persons": 20,231 in 2021, 17,332 in 2020 and 16,098 in 2019.
Interestingly, number of suicides among the "unemployed persons" group saw a decline by 12.38 per cent from 15,652 in 2020 to 13,714 suicides in 2021.