Karnataka: Highest sex ratio among Christians; Muslims overtake Hindus in literacy

New Delhi, Jan 12: In a shocking revelation, one unemployed person committed suicide every hour during 2018 when a total of 1,34,516 suicides, including 92,114 male and 42,391 female, were reported in the country, NCRB's "Suicide in India 2018" says.

The latest data, issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs, last week reveals that a total of 12,936 unemployed persons committed suicide in 2018, which accounted for 9.6 per cent of the total suicides, and were of aged below 18 years to above 60 years.

Those below 18 years include 31 males and nine females while those between 18 and 30 years comprise 1,240 male and 180 female. A total of 868 male and 95 female were aged between 30 and 45 years. A number of 237 males and 21 females were aged between 45 and 60 years while 2,431 males and 310 females were above 60 years.

Of the total suicides by unemployed persons, males are 10,687 while the females are 2,249.

The highest number of suicides - 12.3 per cent - committed by unemployed persons were in Kerala (1,585 out of 12,936 suicides), 12.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu (1,579), 9.7 per cent in Maharashtra (1,260 suicides), 8.5 per cent in Karnataka (1,094 suicides) and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (902 suicides).

"Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely takes the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, dramatically affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than 1 lakh people commit suicide in our country. There are various causes of suicides like professional/career problems, sense of isolation, abuse, violence, family problems, mental disorders, addiction to alcohol, financial loss, chronic pain etc," says the NCRB adding it collects data on suicides from police recorded suicide cases.

As per the NCRB, rate of suicides has been calculated using projected population for the non-census years whereas for 2011, the population of the Population Census 2011 was used.

The NCRB data says that a total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country during 2018 showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017 and the rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 during 2018 over 2017.

Government servants accounted for 1.3 per cent (1,707 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims as compared to 6.1 per cent (8,246 out of 1,34,516) of total victims from Private Sector Enterprises.

Employees from Public Sector Undertakings formed 1.5 per cent (2,022 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims, whereas students and unemployed victims accounted for 7.6 per (10,159 victims) of total suicides. Self-employed category accounted for 9.8 per cent of total suicide victims (13,149 out of 1,34,516).

A total of 10,349 persons involved in farming sector (consisting of 5,763 farmers and cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers) have committed suicide during 2018, accounting for 7.7 per cent of total suicides victims (1,34,516) in the country.

A total of 11 transgenders have committed suicide in which three were daily wage earners, one each were 'professionals and salaried persons' and 'unemployed persons' while six falls under 'Other Persons'.

Bengaluru, Jul 6: Criminal cases will be registered against private hospitals that refuse treatment to COVID-19 patients, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference here at Vidhana Soudha, he said: "No hospital should refuse to admit patients and if any hospital is found denying treatment criminal cases will be registered against them."

He spoke to media persons after returning from his surprise visit to Jayanagar General Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Chest Hospital responded to the questions regarding private hospitals refusing to treat covid patients.

"The government has come up with 6 different systems for treatment of COVID-19 patients. COVID care centres, government medical colleges, private medical college, government hospitals, corporate hospitals and home isolation with proper facilities and according to government guidelines," the minister added.

Dr Sudhakar gave the statistics of 4 metropolitan cities in the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

"Bengaluru's and the mortality rate is the lowest at 1.46%. The aim is to increase testing by optimal utilisation of capacity especially in private labs. Once we increase testing, it is natural that the positive cases will also increase," he said.

"So citizens need not panic due to this but should take all precautionary measures. He advised to get tested in the nearest fever clinics as soon as any symptoms like cough, fever etc are found. Guidelines regarding the home isolation will be released soon," the minister said.

He announced that 400 ambulances will be deployed in Bengaluru and 2 each for every ward.

He said that the government recommended patients at private hospitals will be provided with insurance under Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.

"If private hospitals refuse to admit the patients, call 1912 helpline to get assistance. If admitted in Private hospital voluntarily the treatment cost will be borne by patients as per the rates fixed by the government," Sudhakar said.

He said that the cost of testing at private labs has been capped at Rs 2,200 as per test.