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More than 20,000 housewives took their lives in India in 2014. This was the year when 5,650 farmers killed themselves in the country. o the num!er of suicides !y housewives was over 250" more than the farmers. They also com#rised 4$" of the total female victims. %et the hi&h num!er of homemakers killin& themselves doesn't make front #a&e news in the way farmer suicides do, year after year. In fact, more than 20,000 housewives have !een killin& themselves in India every year since 1(($, the earliest year for which we have information information com#iled !y the )ational *rime +ecords ureau !ased on occu#ation of the victim. In 200(, the &rim statistic #eaked at 25,0(2 deaths. Forget raw numbers. The rate of housewives takin& their lives - more mo re than 11 #er 100,000 #eo#le - has !een consistently hi&her than India's overall suicide rate since 1(($. 1(($. It dro##ed to (. in 2014, yet suicide rate for housewives was more than twice those for farmers that year. Little attention uicide rates of housewives vary from state to state. In 2011, for e/am#le, their rates - more than 20 #er 100,000 #eo#le - were hi&her in states like Maharashtra, ondicherry, Tamil )adu, Madhya radesh, erala, arnataka, ndhra radesh, 3oa, est en&al and 3uarat. una!, ttar radesh and ihar showed lower suicide rates. eter Mayer, who teaches #olitics at the niversity of delaide and has s#ent mu ch time studyin& the sociolo&y of suicide in India, wonders why suicide rates of housewives in India is so hi&h, and why it &ets so little attention in the media. fter all, as Mr Mayer says, research in western societies su&&ests that 7marria&e confers #rotection from suicide to married women8. Therefore, married #eo#le are less likely to kill themselves - studies have found suicide rates for married #eo#le in the and ustralia, for e/am#le, are lower than others in the same a&e &rou#. &rou #.
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India, clearly, is an outlier )early $0" of #eo#le who took their lives in 2001, for e/am#le, wer e married $0.6" of the men and 6$" of the women. study #u!lished in the medical ournal The Lancet in in 2012 found that the suicide rate in Indian women a&ed 15 years or older ol der is more than two and a half times &reater than it is in women of the same a&e in hi&h-income countries, and nearly as hi&h as in *hina. Married women are #art of the cohort. Mr Mayer, author of uicide and ociety in India, and co-researcher 9ella teen, found that the 7risk of suicide is, on the whole, hi&hest in what are #ro!a!ly the first or second decades de cades of marria&e, that is, for those a&ed !etween 0 and 458. 7e found that female literacy, the level of e/#osure to the media and smaller family si:e, all #erha#s indicators of female em#owerment, were correlated with hi&her suicide rates for women in these a&e &rou#s.8 lso, the researchers say that suicide rates amon& housewives are lowest in the most 7traditional8 states, where family si:es are !i& and e/tended families are common. +ates are hi&her in states where households are closer to nuclear families - Tamil )adu, ndhra radesh and erala. ;9owry-related deaths are treated as murders.< ‘Changing expectations’ Mr Mayer told me that he !elieved the hi&h rate of housewife suicides was linked to the 7nature of the social transformation in the nature of the family, which is occurrin& in India8. 7I su&&est that a central e/#lanatory factor is the im#ortance of chan&in& e/#ectations concernin& social roles, es#ecially in marria&e,8 he s ays. There are conflicts with s#ouses and #arents, and 7relations !etween #oorly educated mothers-in-law and !etter-educated, insu!ordinate dau&hters-in-law8 are a source of tension. n educated dau&hter-in-law was more likely to 7for&e a stron& alliance with her hus!and and #ersuade him to !reak off from his #arents and set u# a nuclear family on their own8, accordin& to one study !y =oanne Moller.
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9r >ikram atel, a leadin& 3oa-!ased #sychiatrist and #rofessor at the ?ondon chool of @y&iene and Tro#ical Medicine, who co-authored the Lancet study, study, tells me that the hi&h rate of housewife suicides in India can !e attri!uted to a dou!le whammy of 7&ender and discrimination8. 7Many women face arran&ed marria&es !y force. They T hey have dreams and as#irations, !ut they often do not &et su##ortive s#ouses. ometimes their their #arents don't su##ort them either. They are tra##ed in a difficult system and social milieu,8 he says. 7The resultin& lack of romantic, trustin& and affectionate relationshi# with your s#ouse can lead to such tra&edies.8 Makin& thin&s worse is the lack of counsellors and medical facilities for #atients of de#ression. Then there's the social sti&ma associated with 7mental illness8. )e/t !i& AuestionB why does the media i&nore the risin& rate of suicides amon& married women, when, say, farmer suicides, ri&htly, &ets & ets a lot of attentionC ‘Harassment for dowry’ Mr Mayer says on the 7relatively rare occasion when the Indian media do cover the suicides of married women it is almost always framed in terms of mistreatment !y in-laws and harassment for dowry8. That is clearly only a #art of the story. al#ana harma, a researcher and ournalist, says the lack of covera&e has to lar&ely do with the 7invisi!ility of &ender8 in the Indian media. 7This, in some ways, is worse than miso&yny. There is a lack of en&a&ement with issues relatin& to women, and the media is not no t even aware of the #ro!lem,8 she says. The story of India's 7des#erate housewives8, as Mr Mayer descri!es them, needs to !e ur&ently researched and told. 2016 * )ewsD The )ew %ork Time )ews ervice