Adding as little as $1 to the every ones income will reduce suicides by 6 %: US researchers

A study by US researchers that goes in-line with 2018 National Crime Records Data says that adding just $1 to the minimum wage of everyone will reduce the suicide rate to as much as 6 percent. The National Crime Records Bureau’s 2018 data says that 7 out of 10 suicides in India are done by India’s poor who earned less than 1 lakh rupees annually.

The comprehensive study which analyzed recorded data of 25 years, calculated that the lives of 27,000 people would be saved by increasing the wage just by $1.Raising $2 will save as much as 57,000 lives annually. The study is published in the indexed Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health Jan 2020.

Contrary to popular understanding, more than 50 percent of suicides are done by mentally sound individuals. The role of society is more important to reduce suicides. “We miss the obvious fact that every suicide is a mix of social and mental health issues,” said a Pune-based psychiatrist Soumitra Pathare.

The suicide rate among the unemployed is much higher than in farmers. The attention given to farmer suicides as it is considered a social problem must also be extended to each as the socio-economic role more prominent with this study.