India, Sept. 30 -- At 12.3 per 100,000, India's suicide rate in 2023 was the second-highest since 1966, when the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) started giving such data. The highest suicide rate, of 12.4, was recorded in 2022. That the spike in suicides post the Covid-19 period was yet to abate in 2023 reflects persisting agony, perhaps from the exacerbation of factors contributing to suicide.

The insidious nature of economic vulnerability and suffering comes through upon reading some datapoints from the just-released NCRB 2023 report. Family problems and illnesses were the two leading causes behind suicide in India, and that too by a wide margin. Suicides due to indebtedness were just a small fraction compared to suicides due to i...