Farmers' suicides drops 7.7% in 2018, says NCRB

According to the NCRB's 2018 report on accidental deaths and suicides, a total of 10,349 people involved in the farming sector committed suicide in 2018. Among them, 5,763 were farmers or cultivators and 4,586 were agricultural labourers. The data showed a decline in the suicides compared to 206 and 2107.

New Delhi:The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Thursday released its report on farmers' suicides, saying it had recorded a drop in 2018 and the sector accounted for 7.7% of total suicide rates in the country.

According to the NCRB's 2018 report on accidental deaths and suicides, a total of 10,349 people involved in the farming sector committed suicide in 2018. Among them, 5,763 were farmers or cultivators and 4,586 were agricultural labourers.

"Out of 5,763 farmer or cultivator suicides, a total of 5,457 were male and 306 were female during 2018. Out of 4,586 suicides committed by agricultural labourers during 2018, 4,071 were male and 515 were female," the NCRB 2018 report stated.

In 2017, a total of 10,655 farming sector-suicides were reported and in 2016, the suicide cases have gone higher at 11,379.

According to the report, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers or cultivators and agricultural labourers during 2018.

Three months after releasing its crime data of 2017, the NCRB data on accidental deaths and suicides in India 2018 says that a total of 1,34,516 cases was reported in that particular year.