Odisha: 400 Suicides Every Month In Last 5 Years

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been reporting 13 suicide deaths every day for the last five years, Minister of State (Home) Tusharkanti Behera told the Assembly here on Monday.

In reply to a question by Congress MLA Suresh Routray, the Minister said that 24,365 suicidal deaths have been reported in the last five years. Every month, the state witnesses 400 suicides.

On another question on custodial deaths in the state, Behera said that there have been 25 such cases in the last 5 years. “Inquiry has been completed in four cases while probes into the remaining 21 are still underway.”

Notably, Odisha ranked second in the country in suicide by students in 2020. According to Odisha police report, 1,469 students died by suicide during that year, which was a sharp spike from 379 students in 2019. The year before, 501 had taken the extreme step. A total of 361 students ended their life in 2017 and 390 in 2016. The total in these 5 years amounted to 3,100 and among them 1,848 were girls, the report added.