In 2016, India accounted for over 36% of global women suicides. Suicide is a leading cause of death among Indian women aged 15–39. Rather than being a series of individual tragedies, these deaths are a reflection of deep systemic and gendered inequities.
Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveal clear patterns: suicides are concentrated within specific age groups, occupations, and gendered social pressures.
Gendered divers of women suicides
Across five years (2018-2023) of NCRB data, family problems consistently emerge as the leading cause of suicide among women in India, responsible for roughly 14,000–16,000 deaths of women and girls annually. Marriage-related issues also remain a major driver, with the number of deaths of women regularly matching or exceeding that of men. Dowry-related suicides show the most striking gender gap: women are between six and thirteen times more likely than men to die by suicide in these circumstances (with female-to-male ratios ranging from ~6.5:1 to ~12.9:1 across the period of 2018-2023). Cases linked to infertility and childlessness likewise remain higher among women, reflecting the enduring social stigma around reproductive expectations.
Deaths following pregnancies occurring outside marriage (termed as ‘illegitimate pregnancies’ in the NCRB) are recorded exclusively among women, revealing the disproportionate burden they face in such situations. Recent studies also stress the centrality of marital and reproductive pressures to women’s suicide risk in South and Southeast Asia, reinforcing the need for prevention strategies that address these realities.
Women suicide trends across the life course
Between 2015 and 2023, young girls (under 18) were the only age group in which women suicides consistently exceeded suicides by men. In 2015, there were 4,946 suicides among girls compared to 4,462 among boys. By 2023, the gap had widened, with 5,823 girls dying by suicide against 4,961 boys, a difference of nearly 1,000 deaths.
In India, higher suicides rates among adolescent girls have been linked to factors such as gender-based discrimination, rigid patriarchal norms, early marriage and greater risk of depression. Evidence from the National Family Health Survey conducted between 2019-21 shows 25% of women aged 18-29 were married before attaining the legal age of marriage (21 years). These figures highlight the importance of recognising young girls as a distinct priority within suicide prevention strategies. The National Suicide Prevention Strategy, 2022 frames “youth” as a broad, gender-neutral category and fails to acknowledge the distinct vulnerabilities of girls under the age of 18.
The gendered stressors that exacerbate suicide risk among young girls do not disappear with age; rather, they often transform into new vulnerabilities as women move through early and middle adulthood.
In 2023, 30,793 women aged 18–45 died by suicide, accounting for 66% of all women suicides. Of these, 18,128 deaths occurred among women aged 18–30, and 12,665 among those aged 30–45.
This life stage often coincides with marriage pressures, dowry-related expectations, domestic violence, childcare responsibilities, and the challenge of balancing careers with family roles.
Data from the NCRB (2023) and National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) (2021) highlight the prevalence of domestic violence and dowry harassment as significant challenges facing women during adulthood.
In later years, new risks emerge that reflect the intersection of ageing, gender, and social marginalisation. Suicides among elderly women between 2015 and 2023 increased from 2,761 to 3,680 deaths, an increment of 33.3%. This growth rate is notably faster than that observed among children and adolescents (17%). Older women often contend with widowhood, social isolation, financial dependency, and neglect, all of which can heighten vulnerability to suicide.
Housewives: the largest group of suicides among women
The single largest group of women who die by suicide are housewives, accounting for an estimated 21,000–24,000 deaths every year, around 60 per day (2015 – 2023). This pattern has shown remarkable persistence over the past three decades, rising from 16,000–20,000 deaths annually in the 1990s to a peak of 24,000–25,000 in the 2000s, and then stabilising at approximately 20,000–24,000 through the 2010s and into 2023.
Suicides among housewives outnumber those of all other women occupational groups combined. A housewife is about four times more likely to die by suicide than a female student, and 14 times more likely than a salaried woman (in the years 2015-2023).
Although NCRB data identifies “housewives” as the largest occupational category among women who die by suicide, this category obscures women’s informal labour and reflects gendered social roles rather than a clear occupational classification.
The Time Use Survey released by the National Statistical Office in 2024 found that, on average, women devote over three times more daily time to unpaid domestic services than men. This reveals a significant gender gap in household labour, with women disproportionately bearing the majority of domestic responsibilities. With no equivalent male classification, the data highlight a gendered vulnerability that is both structural and persistent.
According to journalist P. Sainath, many suicides categorised as ‘housewife’ suicides may in fact represent the deaths of women farmers. Their agricultural labour often goes unrecognised, and because many do not have their names on land deeds, their suicides are undercounted in official statistics.
Suicides among other marginalised gender identities
A distinct category for transgender people was included in the NCRB data only in 2014. According to the latest data for the year 2023, a total of forty deaths of transgender people by suicides were recorded, 2.5 times higher than the 2014 figures. Estimates from around the world have highlighted that transgender people highly susceptible to suicides and suicidal tendencies. The significant mental health challenges faced by transgender people in the country are further exacerbated by systemic discrimination, social exclusion, and insufficient access to healthcare. In India, concerns have been raised about the undercounting of suicides among transgender people due to issues like their suicides being recorded under the ‘female’ category. Research examining the gendered challenges faced by transwomen, transmen, and non-binary persons that heighten suicide risk are extremely limited in the Indian context. There is a need for a robust, comprehensive, and context-sensitive evidence base that could inform targeted suicide prevention policies that respond to the unique vulnerabilities of gender-diverse communities.
Gaps in the current policy framework
India’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2022) sets a welcome goal of reducing suicide mortality by 10% by 2030. Women are explicitly identified as a vulnerable category, but the NSPS doesn’t distinguish between specific groups such as adolescent girls, elderly women, or housewives.
The strategy explicitly calls for targeted suicide prevention efforts for women, emphasising the importance of education, economic security, and the reduction of violence against them. It further recommends that all programs for women incorporate elements of suicide prevention, and that the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) and one-stop shelters coordinate their efforts to provide psychological support to women who have survived violence. Despite these recommendations, implementation on the ground remains insufficient. Many one-stop centres, intended to provide medical care, legal assistance, psychological services, and emergency shelter, struggle with serious shortcomings. Some are non-functional, others lack trained mental health professionals, and many face inefficiencies in the disbursal of funds, undermining their ability to support women effectively.
Factors such as dowry harassment, reproductive stigma, early marriages, and the disproportionate burdens of domestic work have not been addressed in the NSPS. Furthermore, there is limited recognition of how caste, class, rural/urban divides, and sexual orientation intersect with women’s suicide risk. The NSPS does not state recommendations to address risk factors specific to transgender people, thus critically neglecting a particularly vulnerable population.
In India, suicide continues to be framed mainly as an individual condition, and systemic gendered risks go largely unacknowledged. Moreover, even when policy frameworks exist, their implementation is plagued with obstacles, limiting their effectiveness. Strengthening linkages between suicide prevention policy and existing gender justice and health programs, alongside ensuring their implementation, would make the framework more responsive to the evidence and better aligned with lived realities of women and people from marginalised genders.
