AHMEDABAD: Gujarat showed signs of distress related to economy when state authorities recorded 294 suicides in 2018 where reason for ending life was termed as ‘poverty’. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ released on Thursday, 318 persons ended their lives citing ‘unemployment’ as the reason.

The figures were 163% and 21% more than the ones recorded in 2017.

Among the cities, Ahmedabad recorded 31 suicides due to unemployment and Vadodara 18. The report also revealed that 67 persons ended lives due to bankruptcy and 136 for career issues in Gujarat.

The biggest rise compared to 2017 was recorded in ‘daily wage earner’ category where compared to 2,131 in 2017, 2018 recorded 2,522 — a rise of 18.3%. The number of persons identified as ‘unemployed’ rose from 369 to 411 — a rise of 11.3%. In 891 cases, the suicide victims were identified as self-employed, a rise of 2% from 872 in 2017.

The ‘professional’ category recorded a slight dip of 1% in suicide victims — from 869 to 856. Government employees were identified as suicide victims in 75 cases which were slightly higher compared to 69 in 2017. Retired persons also recorded 11.4% rise in suicides with 260 cases.

Out of 7,793 suicide victims in 2018, 73.3% were earning less than Rs 1 lakh per annum, 25.5% were earning Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, 1% Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and 0.2% above Rs 10 lakh. Number of those committing suicide having over Rs 5 lakh per annum income got reduced by 55.5% from 182 in 2017 to 81 in 2018.