Context: Recently, National Crime Records Bureau  released "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India" report for 2019.

• Overall, the report shows that the number of suicide cases and accidental deaths registered an increase across the country last year from the 2018 figures.

Report on Suicides in the country

• Suicides in the country went up slightly from 1,34,516 to 1,39,123.
• Of the 97,613 male suicides, the most were of daily wage earners (29,092), followed by self-employed persons (14,319) and the unemployed (11,599).
• Of the 41,493 female, over half were housewives.
• Most suicides by unemployed persons were in Kerala at 14% (1,963), followed by 10.8% in Maharashtra, 9.8% in Tamil Nadu, 9.2% in Karnataka and 6.1% in Odisha.
• Most suicides by those in business activities were in Maharashtra (14.2%), Tamil Nadu (11.7%), Karnataka (9.7%), West Bengal (8.2%) and Madhya Pradesh (7.8%).
• The suicide rate in cities (13.9%) was higher compared to the all-India average.
• Most cases of mass/family suicides were reported from Tamil Nadu (16), followed by Andhra Pradesh (14), Kerala (11) and Punjab (9) and Rajasthan (7).

Report on Accidental deaths

• Accidental deaths in the country increased by 2.3%. Compared with 4,11,824 in 2018, the figure stood at 4,21,104 last year.
• The most casualties of 30.9% were reported in the 30-45 age group, followed by 26% in the 18-30 age group.
• Maharashtra reported the highest deaths (70,329), amounting to nearly one-sixth of the total figure.
• A total of 8,145 deaths was due to the causes attributable to forces of nature, including 35.3% due to lightning, 15.6% by heat/sun stroke and 11.6% deaths in floods.
• Most deaths (400) due to lightning was reported each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, followed by Jharkhand (334) and Uttar Pradesh (321).
• The major causes were ‘traffic accidents’ (43.9%), ‘sudden deaths’ (11.5%), ‘drowning’ (7.9%), ‘poisoning’ (5.1%), ‘falls’ (5.1%) and ‘accidental fire’ (2.6%). A majority (57.2%) of deaths was in the age groups of 18-45 years.

Data on Road Accident

• The rate of road accident deaths per thousand vehicles in India is 61, while the global rate as per the WHO Report is 64.
• Road accidents form 92.2 percent of the total traffic accidents and have consistently declined. This may be attributed to better implementation of laws such as the Motor Vehicles Act, MVA.
• Road accidents due to over-speeding, which was a major cause of road accidents in previous years and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol have declined nationally owing to amendments in the MVA.
• The rate of road traffic deaths per one lakh population over the last 15 years has approximately been 18.
• The rate of road accident deaths per lakh population in 2019 in the country is 11.6. This rate is very close to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs which calls for reduction in the number of deaths by half which comes to 8 by the year 2020.
• In the national capital, Delhi, deaths in cases of road accidents have seen a major decline from 1,734 to 1,508.

About NCRB

• Set -up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
• Set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985).
• NCRB brings out the annual comprehensive statistics of crime across the country (‘Crime in India’ report).
• Being published since 1953, the report serves as a crucial tool in understanding the law and order situation across the country.