An upside down country.

"The data, last published by the National Crime Records Bureau in 2015, actually shows that India's farmers and other agricultural workers are less likely to kill themselves compared to other sections of society. Also, the poorest agricultural workers in India are less likely to kill themselves compared to more fortunate farmers, challenging the correlation between poverty and suicide," wrote M Joseph. "A total of 12,602 persons involved in farming sector -- 8,007 farmers-cultivators and 4,595 agricultural labourers -- committed suicide during 2015, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims (133,623) in the country," the government informed the Supreme Court in 2017. Which means that less than 10% of all suicides are farming related, and is not related to poverty, even though agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for 58% of the population. Which makes farmers the most important vote bank. "'Farmer suicide' has the qualities of of stupendously successful fake news," says Joseph. Perhaps, it is a good thing because although a majority of people are surviving on farming it contributes only 15.4% of GDP, showing that the growth in our economy is bypassing them. Farmer suicides are higher in richer states like Maharashtra and Andhra than in poorer states like Bihar and UP, wrote S Ravi. "Overall too, India's farmers are doing far better than many realize." "They now account for 45 percent of the fast-moving consumer goods sector in India." Actually, four times as many housewives commit suicide in India every year, but there is no discussion about that, wrote S Biswas. While married people are less likely to commit suicide in western countries, in India, " Nearly 70% of people who took their lives in 2001, for example, were married -- 70.6% of the men and 67% of the women." But, just as among farmers, suicide rate is higher among economically better off women, while it was low among women who lived in traditional extended families. "We found that female literacy, the level of exposure to the media and smaller family size, all perhaps indicators of female empowerment, were correlated with higher suicide rates for women in these age groups." According to a study published in The Lancet, India accounts for 37% of all suicides among women. The Lancet paper claimed that there were 257,000 suicides in India in 2016, of which 94,380 were women, whereas according to the National Crime Records Bureau there were 133,000 suicides, of which 42,088 were women. Even if we take the lower rates, 1% of the population is committing suicide every year in India. A large number of Indians live and work abroad. Vast majority of them would be economically better off and would be living in nuclear families. It would be interesting to see the rate of suicide among them. That would indicate if life in India so wretched that middle class people do not think it is worth living? Such a study would enrage our politicians. Certainly worth it.