New Delhi: In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, February 9, Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, citing data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), said that 3,548 people died by suicide due to unemployment in 2020.

The figure, observed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, marks the first time in the recent past that the number of recorded deaths by suicide among the unemployed in the country crossed the 3,000 mark, Indian Express reported.

Since the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the country has seen 18,772 deaths by suicides among the unemployed with an average of 2,681 such deaths per year.

In the last seven years of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the total number of deaths by suicide stood at 15,332 with an average of 2,188 such deaths per year.

The NCRB data also reveals that in 2020, the states with the highest number of deaths by suicide among the unemployed were Karnataka (720), Maharashtra (625), Tamil Nadu (336), Assam (234), and Uttar Pradesh (227). The total number of deaths by suicide in 2020 was 1.53 lakh.

Rai also detailed the number of deaths by suicide due to bankruptcy and indebtedness in 2020, which stood at 5,213, down from 5,908 in 2019, which itself saw a large jump from 4,970 in 2018.

Rai also said that the government is focussing on tackling the issue by promoting mental health services and that it is implementing the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) through which it would support a District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) in 692 districts in the country.

“The programme aims to provide suicide prevention services, workplace stress management, lifeskills training and counselling in schools and colleges; mental health services including prevention, promotion and long-term continuing care at different levels of district healthcare delivery system and promote community awareness and participation in the delivery of mental healthcare services,” the newspaper quoted Rai as saying.

Unemployment has been a persistent issue in the country, exacerbated by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh has seen several protests by students on the issue and anger with the Adityanath government in the states has been threatening to boil over. Opposition politicians, too, have claimed that unemployment will prove to be a key issue in the assembly elections in the state.

The issue of unemployment has also been at the fore since the presentation of the Union Budget 2022-23 in parliament on February 1 in which the Union government's allocation towards targeted schemes to generate employment and control inflation have been seen as grossly inadequate.

For example, the budget left the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) unchanged despite exceeding the allocation in previous budgets for at least the last two years.

Also read: 'With Budget 2022-23, Govt Has Once Again Failed Millions Of Rural Citizens': NREGA Sangharsh Mocha

However, Rai on Wednesday said that the government had launched several programmes to tackle the issue of employment and income generation, citing the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY), National Career Service (NCS) project, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), MGNREGA, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

In addition to these targeted schemes, Rai also mentioned initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, the Smart City mission, among others, saying that these, too, will serve to generate employment opportunities. 

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation maintains a list of telephone numbers they can call to speak in confidence. Icall, a counselling service run by TISS, has maintained a crowdsourced list of therapists across the country. You could also take them to the nearest hospital.

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