New Delhi, May 7 -- For every 100 people who died in accidents in India in 2024, 36.5 died by suicide. This ratio is lower than 38.6 in 2023 and the Covid-era peak of more than 40 in 2020 and 2021. The latest decline, however, does not mean India's suicide burden has returned to its pre-pandemic level. According to the 2024 edition of the National Crime Records Bureau's Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report, released on Wednesday, 1,70,746 people died by suicide in 2024, down marginally from 1,71,418 in 2023. The suicide rate, or suicides per hundred thousand people, fell from 12.3 to 12.2. This is still well above the 2019 rate of 10.4. In absolute terms, the number of suicides in 2024 was 22.7% higher than in 2019. The reason the...