Suicides: Nearly 12 lives lost every 24 hours in Odisha!

Bhubaneswar:  Only in the last month of year 2019, Odisha saw nearly half a dozen suicides. The count of 12 suicides every day in State is simply devastating. The victims' status ranges from housewives, students to professionals.

While 2019 provisional data available with State Health Department shows Odisha recorded 923 suicides by adolescents and adults, the aggregate provisional data on suicides available with State police puts the total suicide count in Odisha at a high of 4,543 in 2019.

In year 2017, the State had recorded 4,493 suicides. The 2019 numbers show a rising trend of suicides in State.

Why the count is mounting up? It's significant to understand what prompts one to take such an extreme step.

According to American Novelist Tiffanie DeBartolo, "No one commits suicide because they want to die. Then why do they do it? Because they want to stop the pain."  The catch lies here. It is to get rid of the pain, people resort to such extreme step. And solution to the raging menace is mitigating pain of peoples in distress.

A look doesn't show any big gender divide in Odisha, though male suicide count is marginally higher than women. However, a look at the marital status tells a bigger tale. Suicides by married persons account for almost half of the total suicide mortalities in State, but the gender divide is not conspicuous. Suicide by married men is marginally higher than women.

However, the big catch here is suicides by housewives alone constitute nearly one-third of total suicides in State.  And the next suicide prone group is students. The least vulnerable age-group to suicide is age-group of beyond 60.

The big hint here is maturity holds the key to ebb the suicide tide in Odisha.