Over 13,000 student suicide deaths in one year: NCRB Report 2023

NCRB Report: Over 10,000 children under 18 years old died by suicide. For over 2,000 students, failure in exams was the cause.

NCRB Report 2023: Over 10,000 children died by suicide in 2022. (Image: Freepik)

Atul Krishna | December 4, 2023 | 03:10 PM IST

NEW DELHI : Over 13,000 students took their own lives in India in 2022, according to the latest report on Accidental deaths and Suicides in India 2022 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Students accounted for 7.6% of all suicide deaths in 2022.

The report also revealed that failure in examinations was the cause of 1,123 suicide deaths for students below the age of 18 years. Out of this, 578 were girls and 575 were boys.

Across age groups, 2,095 people died by suicide after failure in examinations. This number was highest in Maharashtra (378), followed by Madhya Pradesh (277) and Jharkhand (174). Karnataka (162) and Gujarat (155) also recorded high number of suicide deaths caused by failure in examinations.

Overall, 10,295 children below the age of 18 years died by suicide in 2022. The number of suicides was slightly higher among girls (5,588) compared to that among boys (4,616).

The report also revealed that the highest percentage of deaths was seen among people with secondary level education which amounted to 23.9% of all the suicides in 2022. People without education amounted to 11.5% of all suicide deaths.

Percentage of total suicide deaths by education status

Education status

Percentage of total suicide deaths

Secondary level (Classes 9 and 10)

23.9

Upper primary or middle level (Classes 6 to 8)

18

Higher secondary level (Classes 11 and 12)

15.9

Primary level (Classes 1 to 5)

14.5

No education

11.5

Graduate and above

5.2

Diploma

1.6

Professionals

0.4

Status not known

9


Among states, Sikkim reported the highest suicide rate with 43.1, followed by Kerala with 28.5 and Chhattisgarh with 28.2. Suicide rate is calculated by the number of deaths per one lakh population.

Also Read | Kota Suicides: Supreme Court blaming parents is compounding the problem, says petitioner

At 22,746 deaths, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of suicide deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 19,834 and Madhya Pradesh with 15,386 suicides.

For help, AASRA has a list of resources here: http://www.aasra.info/helpline.html

Follow us for the latest education news on colleges and universities, admission, courses, exams, research, education policies, study abroad and more..

To get in touch, write to us at news@careers360.com.