Rocked by rocky marriages, men cutting their lives short-DNA Pune

A 29-year-old man, who committed suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of Bharti Bazar building on Thursday over a “failed” marriage, is not a one-off case of men ending their lives over tricky marital issues.
Data available with National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) shows that the suicidal tendencies due to alleged harassment by spouses and in-laws has been increasing among married men since 1995. While 35,245 men ended their lives in 1995, the number went up to 61,453 by 2010.

As against this, the number of married women who committed suicide in 1995 was 35,245. In 2010 it came down to 31,300. The NCRB report, Crimes In India 2010, says that most of these suicides were due to domestic violence.
The report said that family problems and illness were the major causes for suicides as they accounted for 23.7% and 21.1% deaths respectively.
According to the report, suspected or known illicit relations resulted in 1,264 suicides in 2008, 1,180 in 2009 and 1,336 in 2010. Cancellation and no settlement of marriages resulted in 949 suicides in 2008, 1,003 in 2009 and 1027 in 2010.
The report pointed out that impotency and childlessness resulted in 743 men ending their lives in 2008, 680 in 2009 and 666 in 2010, whereas dowry disputes resulted in 3,038 suicides in 2008, 2,921 in 2009 and 3,093 in 2010. Most of them could not swallow the bitter pill of divorce which led to 410 suicides in 2008, 331 in 2009 and 290 in 2010.

Family problems accounted for in 29,777 lived in 2008, 30,082 in 2009 and 31,856 in 2010. Failure in love was one of the major reasons for taking the extreme step as it cost 3,774 lives in 2008, 3,711 in 2009 and 4,166 in 2010.
The report says that analysis of suicides in India showed that Maharashtra, with 6,057 suicides in 2010 (38.1% of the suicides in the country), stood at third rank. Kerala topped with 41.6%, followed by Puducherry at 38.8%, Tamil Nadu 35%, Tripura 33.9%, Chandigarh 33.8%, Uttarakhand 28.8%, Punjab with 28.2% and Manipur with 24.3%.
l Related report, p3