The National Crime Records Bureau of India has now come up with its annual publication for 2014 on Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI). There have been 1,31,666 suicidal deaths in 2014 that is less than that of 2013 when there were 1,34,799 suicidal deaths. It needs to be mentioned that these deaths are as per police records and, as indicated by the Global Burden of Disease following a study on Suicide Mortality in India in the Lancet by Vikram Patel et al, would be underestimates.
There have been some important changes in profession wise suicide reportage for 2014 and some of the professions are not comparable. For instance, in the earlier profession wise classification, the self-employed were indicated under four sub-categories (business, professionals, agriculture/farming, and others). In 2013, more than 21 per cent of the total suicidal deaths were self-employed [others] and any exercise to improve clarity would be welcome.
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