Stories about "India Shining" might be the hype of the day, but there is a grimmer picture of a nation in crisis: On average, a farmer commits suicide every half hour. And it is the farmer in economically more developed states, who are most vulnerable. The overall figures are no less depressing. In 2005, the last year for which complete figures are available, there were as many as 312 suicides a day, almost a third of them by women. One-third of those who commit suicide are young people, less than 29 years old. An average of 90 of those take their lives every day are above 45 years. Suicides in the country have steadily risen because of various factors, the important ones being "family problem" and "illness" — the two made up about 44% of suicides. Significantly, while suicides by indebted farmers are supposed to have been largely responsible for driving suicide figures up, "bankruptcy" has been mentioned in a meagre 2.7% of the cases. But while statistics tell a sad tale, they don’t tell the entire story. They are derived from first information reports (FIRs) filed all over the country and compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau. And while pointing to the magnitude of the problem, the full picture might be even worser, considering the fact that many suicides go un-reported.
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