India’s suicide rate stood at 16.5 suicides per 100,000 people in 2016, according to the WHO report. This was higher than the global suicide rate of 10.5.

The report presented suicide rates for countries and regions using data from the WHO Global Health Estimates for 2016. When classified according to region and income, India is part of the South-East Asia region and the Lower Middle-Income group of countries. India’s suicide rate (16.5) was higher than the rate of its geographic region (13.4) and the rate of its income group (11.4).

India also had the highest suicide rate in the South-East Asian region for females (14.5). India’s male suicide rate was not the highest in the region, but at 18.5, was higher than the female rate and the combined suicide rate. India stood third in the region in male suicide rates, after Sri Lanka (23.3) and Thailand (21.4). 

WHO recommendations
Despite having a suicide rate higher than the global average, India has not acted on the WHO’s recommendations for suicide prevention. In 2014, the WHO had released a report with a series of recommendations for successful suicide prevention. It proposed following the public health model for suicide prevention, consisting of four steps:
 

1. Surveillance
2. Identification of risks and protective factors
3. Development & evaluation of interventions
4. Implementation

India has not progressed beyond the first step, surveillance, defined in its 2014 report as the systematic collection of data on suicides and suicide attempts.

However, even in this, the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) 49-year-old practice of announcing suicide statistics was stopped abruptly in 2016 (when it released suicide statistics for 2015), and suicide statistics have not been made public ever since.

Farmer suicides
Up to 2016, every year, the NCRB compiled the preceding year’s suicide data in an annual report titled ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ (ADSI). These reports presented the total number of suicide deaths in the country, categorised by cause, means, occupation, educational status and economic status.

In 2014 and 2015, the NCRB included a chapter with data on suicides within the farming sector. This chapter highlighted that five states (Maharashtra, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka) had accounted for nearly 90% of all farmer suicides in the country in 2014 and 2015.

Two years after the introduction of the new chapter, the NCRB stopped publishing its annual report.

The NCRB had found discrepancies in the data submitted for 2016 and had asked states to re-verify the data, the government told parliament. 

 Monitoring methods
While the NCRB claims the 2016 ADSI report is being finalised, India’s data collection remains insufficient, when measured against the WHO’s suicide prevention recommendations.

The WHO’s 2014 report had suggested that countries must monitor data from multiple sources such as vital registration data (the number of births and deaths recorded), hospital-based systems and surveys; the NCRB collects suicide data for its ADSI reports from a single source–the police departments of states and union territories.

Claiming to have used years of high-quality vital registration data to prepare its suicide estimates, the WHO’s latest report said India’s death registration data was not usable by WHO standards.

The latest report on global suicide estimates rated the death registration data quality of each country on a scale of five, where one was the highest score and five the lowest. India’s was rated four and termed “unusable or unavailable” due to quality issues. 

India also does not compile and publish data on suicide attempts at the national level. The WHO recommended using hospital-based systems and surveys to monitor suicide attempts.

A previous suicide attempt is the single most important risk factor for suicide in the general population, the 2014 WHO report had noted. Failing to track suicide attempts can leave many at risk–the WHO estimates that for every person who dies by suicide, more than 20 others attempt it. 

National strategy needed
To lower its suicide rate, India must first collect high-quality data and build a comprehensive suicide surveillance system, as the WHO recommends. A national strategy and action plan, informed by better data, could drive the implementation of the four-step public health model of suicide prevention.

While India has implemented a National Mental Health Programme, it has no national-level response system. A national suicide prevention strategy is required to raise awareness of suicide as a public health issue and prioritise suicide prevention, as Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, said in an address to the Indian Association of Private Psychiatry in 2018.

(Ahmed is a graduate of architecture from the University of Kent and is an IndiaSpend contributor.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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The state’s vast network of rivers floods its valleys every year, causing an annual loss of Rs 200 crore, on average. Even after the floods recede, the state will continue to lose land and livelihoods to its rivers. We explain how.

Assam’s land is composed almost entirely of river valleys. The geographical area of Assam is 78,438 sq km, of which 56,194 sq km is covered by the Brahmaputra river valley. The Barak river valley, along with two hill districts, makes up the remaining 22,244 sq km of the state.

With two rivers, 48 major tributaries and numerous sub-tributaries flowing across its valleys, Assam’s river network leaves nearly 40% of the state flood-prone.

However, Assam’s longest river, the Brahmaputra, has been claiming more ground by eroding its banks. When it was first surveyed over the years 1912-28, the river covered an area of 3,870 sq km. This area increased 57% to 6,080 sq km by the year 2006. The river is 5.46 km wide on average, but has widened to 15 km in some places through erosion. 

Losing land and livelihoods
Eating away at it own banks, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries have destroyed entire villages. Between 2010 and 2015, 880 villages were completely eroded, 67 villages were partially eroded, and 36,981 families lost their homes to erosion during this five-year period.

In addition to homes, Assam’s families are also losing farmland: 3,800 sq km of farmland–an area larger than Goa–has been lost to erosion since 1954. Land is a vital resource in the state, since over 75% of Assam’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood as farmers, agricultural labourers or both. A loss of land usually means a loss their livelihood.

With more than 85% of all farmer families in Assam classified as small or marginal farmers–owning just 0.63 hectare on average, about the size of the smallest football field–many are at risk of losing all their land to erosion.

More erosion than deposition
The annual report of the Brahmaputra Board stated that, between 1988 and 2015, the river had also deposited land on its banks.

However, although 208 sq km (20,800 hectares) of land had been deposited on the Brahmaputra’s banks, more than three times that had been eroded.

The report also said land deposited by a river can be used for cultivation only after the formation of topsoil, generally a multi-year process. This means it will take several years to gain back the farmable land lost in a year.

Meanwhile, the state continues to lose 8,000 hectares of land to the river every year. Since 1950, a total of 427,000 hectares of land have been lost to the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, according to the Water Resources Department of Assam. This amounts to 7.4% of the total land area of the state. 

No long-term solutions applied
Till date, Assam’s water resources department has not implemented any long-term measures to tackle the erosion problems of the state.

It has focused its efforts on managing floods, implementing measures that are immediate and short-term, such as constructing embankments. The department has built 4,473 km of new embankments and strengthened 655 km of embankments so far. However, the embankments are commonly breached due to bank erosion, according to the department.

More people at risk
There has been a significant increase in the number of people inhabiting the Brahmaputra river valley. In 1940-41, the population density of valley ranged from 9 to 29 persons/sq km in different districts of Assam. The population density of the flood-prone valley has since increased to 200 persons/sq km, leaving a large number of people at the mercy of its rivers.

(Ahmed is a graduate of architecture from the University of Kent and is an intern at IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: https://www.indiaspend.com/
 

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